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No. 63 (PM 12)
Comparison of a novel real-time PCR system in the quantification of HIV-1 RNA
Demak Lumban Tobing, Sri Hartini, Theresia Koeshandini, Runingsih
Dharmais Cancer Hospital Clinical Pathology Laboratory, Indonesia
HIV-AIDS is a major healthcare problem in Indonesia, due to increasing prevalence, lifelong therapy,
and high cost for monitoring. Monitoring of therapy requires HIV-RNA quantification, which is
expensive and requires special equipment, dedicated room and skilled man power. A novel real-time
PCR system (Existation) had been developed, which enabled real-time measurement of HIV-1 RNA
in small to medium laboratory. We evaluated the performance of this system as compared to the
reverse-transcriptase PCR (Cobas Taqman) and nucleic acid-based sequence amplification/ NASBA
(Nuclisense). Fifty nine plasma samples were run on both Cobas Taqman and Existation, and 30
plasma samples run on Nuclisense and Existation. The result of HIV-1 RNA viral load were
analyzed descriptively. Of the 59 samples, 38 were not detected with Cobas Taqman (lower detection
limit 33 IU/ml), and 3 of the 21 positive samples were below 400 IU/ml; 33 samples showed negative
result from both platforms; 17 positive samples showed good agreement with the result of Existation
consistently lower than Cobas Taqman (-1.22 log 10