1. Short Communication: Dried Blood Spots Stored at Room Temperature Should Not Be Used for HIV Incidence Testing
- Author
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Eisenberg, Anna L, Patel, Eshan U, Packman, Zoe R, Fernandez, Reinaldo E, Piwowar-Manning, Estelle, Hamilton, Erica L, MacPhail, Catherine, Hughes, James, Pettifor, Audrey, Kallas, Esper G, Busch, Michael P, Murphy, Gary, Quinn, Thomas C, Eshleman, Susan H, Laeyendecker, Oliver, Agyei, Yaw, Wang, Jing, Kahn, Kathleen, Selin, Amanda, Gomez-Olive, F Xavier, Pilcher, For CEPHIA Christopher, Santos, Breno R, Deeks, Steven G, Facente, Shelley, Keating, Sheila M, and Welte, Alex
- Subjects
Biomedical and Clinical Sciences ,Clinical Sciences ,Sexually Transmitted Infections ,Clinical Trials and Supportive Activities ,Infectious Diseases ,Clinical Research ,HIV/AIDS ,4.5 Resources and infrastructure (detection) ,Detection ,screening and diagnosis ,Infection ,Adult ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,Dried Blood Spot Testing ,Female ,HIV Infections ,HIV Seroprevalence ,Humans ,Incidence ,Specimen Handling ,Temperature ,Young Adult ,dried blood spot ,incidence testing ,sample storage ,for HPTN 068 and CEPHIA ,Virology ,Clinical sciences - Abstract
The limiting antigen (LAg)-avidity assay is a serologic assay used for cross-sectional HIV incidence testing. We compared the results obtained with the LAg-avidity assay using dried blood spot (DBS) samples stored at room temperature (18°C-25°C) or stored frozen at -80°C with results obtained from matched plasma samples. Matched DBS and plasma samples (306 paired samples) were collected in the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) 068 trial in South Africa (2012-2014). The DBS were stored at room temperature before testing. Matched DBS and plasma samples (100 paired samples) from the Consortium for the Evaluation and Performance of HIV Incidence Assays (CEPHIA) were collected in 2016 and were stored at -80°C. All DBS testing was performed in 2017. Differences in normalized optical density (ODn) were compared between matched DBS and plasma samples. For DBS samples stored at room temperature (HPTN 068), the average difference in ODn values for plasma versus DBS was 1.49 (95% confidence intervals [CI]: 1.36-1.62). In contrast, when DBS samples were stored at -80°C (CEPHIA), the average difference in ODn values for plasma versus DBS was -0.22 (95% CI: -0.32 to -0.13). DBS samples stored at room temperature should not be used for cross-sectional HIV incidence testing with the LAg-avidity assay.
- Published
- 2018