A comparative study on testing methods for HIV viral load

Objective] To investigate the coincidence among different testing methods for HIV viral load to provide the selection for clinical use in reference. [Methods] From cases with HIV infections and AIDS in Shanghai, 91 plasma samples were collected and tested for HIV viral load, by both bDNA and NASBA. The detection rate, correlation and difference were compared. [Results] The detection rate for HIV viral load among the observed subjects were 80% on average with no difference in duplication. The Log valus of the viral load showed high linear correlation between the results of these two methods. But there was a significant difference among the results of 7 cases with AIDS. [Conclusion] These two testing methods (bDNA and NASBA) for HIV viral load had an very high coincidence for either one of the methods be selected in practice. In fact, the NASBA was more sensitive at low titler of HIV viral load while the bDNA was able to test for HIV subtypes more extensively.