Journal List > Yonsei Med J > v.42(2) > 1029236

TOOLS
Won, Park, Kim, and Kim: Comparison of the reverse transcription-PCR with the branched DNA assay for measurement of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 RNA levels in plasma of Korean patients
Original Article
Yonsei Medical Journal

Yonsei Medical Journal 2001; 42(2): 204-208.

Published online: 3 April 2009

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3349/ymj.2001.42.2.204

Comparison of the reverse transcription-PCR with the branched DNA assay for measurement of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 RNA levels in plasma of Korean patients

Dong Il Won1, Jung Yong Park1, June Myung Kim2, Hyon Suk Kim1

1Department of Clinical Pathology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

2Department of Internal Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

Hyon-Suk Kim, M.D., Ph.D. Department of Clinical Pathology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, C.P.O. Box 8044, Seoul 120-752, Korea. Tel: 82-2-361-5863, Fax: 82-2-313-0956, kimhs54@yumc.yonsei.ac.kr

Received 23 October 2000       Accepted 11 December 2000

Copyright © 2001 The Yonsei University College of Medicine

Abstract

Viral load testing of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is an essential tool for initiating and monitoring the antiretroviral therapy for HIV patients. To this end, several methods including polymerase chain reaction (PCR), branched DNA (bDNA), nucleic acid sequence based amplification assay (NASBA) and internally controlled virion PCR (ICV PCR) have become available. Of these methods, the standard reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) assay has been widely used in Korea. However, no comparison study has been performed among the various detection methods currently used in Korean patients.
We evaluated the correlation and agreement between the PCR and the branched DNA (bDNA) assay for measurement of HIV RNA in Korean patients. Eighty randomly selected samples from HIV-1-seropositive patients visiting Yonsei Medical Center Severance Hospital were studied.
We found that these assays show good agreement, have a reliable correlation (r = 0.92, mean difference in log10 copies/ mL ± 2 standard deviation = 0.098 ± 0.805) and produce values whose relationship is given by the following equation: log10v3 bDNA = -0.3405 + 1.0601 · log10RT-PCR. Thus, we conclude that these two methods may allow direct comparison of the results obtained from different assay systems.

Keywords: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1, reverse transcription-PCR assay (RT-PCR), branched DNA assay (bDNA)

TOOLS
Similar articles