Diagnosing acute HIV infection: The performance of quantitative HIV-1 RNA testing (viral load) in the 2014 laboratory
Hsiu Wu1, Stephanie E Cohen2, Emily Westheimer3
1Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Abstract:
New recommendations for laboratory diagnosis of HIV infection in the United States were published in 2014. The updated testing algorithm includes a qualitative HIV-1 RNA assay to resolve discordant immunoassay results and to identify acute HIV-1 infection (AHI). The qualitative HIV-1 RNA assay is not widely available; therefore, we evaluated the performance of a more widely available quantitative HIV-1 RNA assay, viral load, for diagnosing AHI. We determined that quantitative viral loads consistently distinguished AHI from a false-positive immunoassay result. Among 100 study participants with AHI and a viral load result, the estimated geometric mean viral load was 1,377,793copies/mL.
