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Updated: Jun 28, 2026
Amplifying and Quantifying HIV-1 RNA in HIV Infected Individuals with Viral Loads Below the Limit of Detection by Standard Clinical Assays
Published on: September 26, 2011
Increased detectability of plasma HIV-1 RNA after introduction of a new assay and altered specimen-processing
Peter F Rebeiro1, Asghar Kheshti, Sally S Bebawy
1Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee 37232-2582, USA.
Abstract:
After changes to assay and specimen-processing methods, plasma human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) RNA was frequently detectable in patients who previously had well-suppressed HIV-1 RNA levels. This artifact is attributable to shipping frozen plasma in primary plasma preparation tubes and is not caused by the HIV-1 RNA detection assay; it can be avoided by shipping plasma in a secondary tube.
