ArticleJournal of clinical microbiology2013
Evaluation of quantification of HIV-1 RNA viral load in plasma and dried blood spots by use of the semiautomated Cobas Amplicor assay and the fully automated Cobas Ampliprep/TaqMan assay, version 2.0, in Kisumu, Kenya.
Article in Journal of clinical microbiology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Detection of Viral Nucleic Acid in Specimens Spotted on Commercial Filter Papers: A Review and Meta-Analysis.Viruses · 2026Pooled it
- The performance of using dried blood spot specimens for HIV-1 viral load testing: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Record linkage without patient identifiers: Proof of concept using data from South Africa's national HIV program.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- HIV-1 drug resistance genotyping success rates and correlates of Dried-blood spots and plasma specimen genotyping failure in a resource-limited setting.BMC infectious diseases · 2022Article
- Annual home-based HIV testing in the Chókwè Health Demographic Surveillance System, Mozambique, 2014 to 2019: serial population-based survey evaluation.Journal of the International AIDS Society · 2021Article
- Field evaluation of HIV-1 viral load monitoring in adults and children receiving antiretroviral treatment in Nigeria by dried blood spot testing with RealTime HIV-1 on m2000.Journal of clinical virology : the official publication of the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology · 2021Article
- Whatman FTA cards versus plasma specimens for the quantitation of HIV-1 RNA using two real-time PCR assays.Access microbiology · 2020Article
- Diagnosis of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2019Review
- Multicenter Evaluation of Two Next-Generation HIV-1 Quantitation Assays, Aptima Quant Dx and Cobas 6800, in Comparison to the RealTiJournal of clinical microbiology · 2018Article
- A Simple Phosphate-Buffered-Saline-Based Extraction Method Improves Specificity of HIV Viral Load Monitoring Using Dried Blood Spots.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2017Article
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- Point-of-Care Cepheid Xpert HIV-1 Viral Load Test in Rural African Communities Is Feasible and Reliable.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2016Article
- Modeling Immune Response to BK Virus Infection and Donor Kidney in Renal Transplant Recipients.Inverse problems in science and engineering · 2016Article
- Leukodepletion as a point-of-care method for monitoring HIV-1 viral load in whole blood.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2015Article
- Article
- Limited utility of dried-blood- and plasma spot-based screening for antiretroviral treatment failure with Cobas Ampliprep/TaqMan HIV-1 version 2.0.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2014Article
- Quantification of plasma HIV RNA using chemically engineered peptide nucleic acids.Nature communications · 2014Article
- Measures of viral load using Abbott RealTime HIV-1 Assay on venous and fingerstick dried blood spots from provider-collected specimens in Malawian District Hospitals.Journal of clinical virology : the official publication of the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology · 2014Article
- Prospective evaluation of diagnostic accuracy of dried blood spots from finger prick samples for determination of HIV-1 load with the NucliSENS Easy-Q HIV-1 version 2.0 assay in Malawi.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In Kenya, HIV-1 viral load monitoring is commonly performed with the Cobas Amplicor using plasma specimens. Interest is growing in transitioning to real-time PCR (RT-PCR), such as the Cobas Ampliprep/Cobas TaqMan (CAP/CTM), using dried blood spots (DBS). Before implementation, direct evaluation of the two assays using DBS field specimens is required. This study compares the sensitivity, specificity, negative and positive predictive values (NPV and PPV, respectively), concordance, and agreement between HIV-1 viral load measurements using plasma and DBS specimens obtained from 512 HIV-1-infected pregnant females enrolled in the Kisumu Breastfeeding Study and tested with the Cobas Amplicor and CAP/CTM assays. The sensitivity and NPV of viral load detection in DBS specimens were higher with CAP/CTM (sensitivity, 100%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 99.1 to 100.0%; NPV, 100%; 95% CI, 59.0 to 100.0%) than the Cobas Amplicor (sensitivity, 96.6%; 95% CI, 94.3 to 98.1%; NPV, 58.8%; 95% CI, 40.7 to 75.4%). The PPVs were comparable between both assays when using DBS. The specificity of viral load detection in DBS specimens was lower with CAP/CTM (77.8%; 95% CI, 40.0 to 97.2%) than that of the Cobas Amplicor (95.2%; 95% CI, 76.2 to 99.9%). Good concordance and agreement were observed when paired plasma and DBS specimens were tested with both assays. Lower specificity with the CAP/CTM is likely due to proviral HIV-1 DNA amplification and lower detection limits with RT-PCR. However, the CAP/CTM has better sensitivity and higher throughput than the Cobas Amplicor. These findings suggest that DBS may be a suitable alternative to plasma when using RT-PCR, which could increase access to viral load monitoring in resource-limited settings.
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