Comparative effectiveness of dried plasma HIV-1 viral load testing in Brazil using ViveST for sample collection

Area of Science:

• Virology
• Clinical Diagnostics
• Public Health

Background:

• Dried plasma utilization for HIV-1 viral load (VL) testing can significantly reduce sample shipping expenses.
• Current methods often rely on frozen plasma, posing logistical and cost challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the precision and reproducibility of the ViveST system for transporting specimens for HIV-1 VL testing.
• To compare HIV-1 VL results obtained from dried plasma samples with those from traditional frozen plasma samples.

Main Methods:

• Reproducibility testing involved replicate samples across different HIV-1 VL ranges (2, 3, and 4 log(10) copies/mL).
• A comparison study used 299 dried plasma samples against frozen plasma samples analyzed with the VERSANT HIV-1 RNA 3.0 Assay.
• Statistical analyses included Student t-test, Pearson correlation, and Bland-Altman analyses.

Main Results:

• Intra-assay variance was lower for dried plasma (0.09 log(10) copies/mL) compared to frozen plasma (0.15 log(10) copies/mL).
• A slight, statistically significant reduction in VL values was observed with dried plasma compared to frozen plasma across tested ranges (P<0.01).
• High overall correlation (r=0.97) was found between dried and frozen plasma samples, with minor discrepancies in detectability.

Conclusions:

• HIV-1 VL testing using the ViveST dried plasma method demonstrates good reproducibility and strong correlation with frozen plasma results.
• While yielding minimally lower values, the ViveST system shows potential for cost-effective HIV-1 VL testing in clinical settings.
• Dried plasma offers a promising alternative for HIV-1 VL testing, potentially improving accessibility and reducing logistical burdens.