Quantification of intrahepatic total HBV DNA in liver biopsies of HBV-infected patients by a modified version of COBAS Ampliprep/COBASTaqMan HBV test v2.0.

Intrahepatic total HBV DNA (it-HBV DNA) level might reflect the size of virus reservoir and correlate with the histological status of the liver. To quantitate it-HBV DNA in a series of 70 liver biopsies obtained from hepatitis B chronic patients, a modified version of the COBASAmpliprep/COBASTaqMan HBV test v2.0 was used for this purpose.

Performance of genotypic tropism testing in clinical practice using the enhanced sensitivity version of Trofile as reference assay: results from the OSCAR Study Group.

Objective: The goal of the OSCAR programme is to evaluate the performances of genotypic HIV-1 tropism testing in clinical practice using the enhanced sensitivity version of Trofile (ESTA) as reference-assay.

Methods: HIV-1 coreceptor-usage was assessed using plasma samples from 406 HIV-1 infected patients by ESTA and by gp120 V3 population-sequencing followed by Geno2pheno (set at a False Positive Rate [FPR] of 10% and 5%).

Results: ESTA was successful in 365 (89.