Amplicor HIV monitor, NASBA HIV-1 RNA QT and quantiplex HIV RNA version 2.0 viral load assays: a Canadian evaluation.

Background: HIV-1 viral load quantitation is now recognized as a useful tool to monitor the efficiency of antiviral treatment and a powerful predictor of disease outcome. Three HIV-1 viral load quantitation methods have been currently available as commercial kits in Canada since 1996.

Objective: To evaluate the ability to quantify HIV-1 RNA in plasma of the Amplicor HIV Monitor Test, the NASBA HIV-1 RNA QT Assay and the Quantiplex HIV RNA Assay, version 2.

Impact of unified procedures as implemented in the Canadian Quality Assurance Program for T lymphocyte subset enumeration. Participating Flow Cytometry Laboratories of the Canadian Clinical Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Therapies.

The objective of the Canadian Quality Assurance Program (CQAP) is to provide the most reproducible and accurate T-cell subset enumeration for individuals living with HIV who are enrolled in the Canadian Clinical Trial Network for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Therapies (abbreviated as CTN). The Canadian National Laboratory for Analytical Cytology, within the Laboratory Centre for Disease Control, is part of the Health Protection Branch of Health Canada. For the past eight years, the Laboratory for Analytical Cytology has been responsible for delivering a bilingual quality assurance program for CD4 T-cell enumeration.

Evolution of leukocyte immunophenotyping as influenced by the HIV/AIDS pandemic: a short history of the development of gating strategies for CD4+ T-cell enumeration.

This brief review of the development of gating strategies for CD4+ T-cell enumeration is really the story of contemporary clinical flow cytometry. It is the chronicle of its birth, and its slow invasion into the clinical immunology laboratory over the past 15 years. The driving force behind the technological evolution of leukocyte immunophenotyping was, and still is, the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on the discipline of immunology.

Principles of flow cytometry.

Clinical flow cytometry is a relatively new and rapidly growing medical technology. According to estimates, there were less than 1000 instruments in operation globally prior to 1985. Most of these instruments were used exclusively for research, and required dedicated facilities and operators with extensive backgrounds in electronics.

Marginal zinc deficiency has no effect on primary or challenge infections in mice with Heligmosomoides polygyrus (Nematoda).

The effect of low dietary zinc on the survival of an intestinal nematode (Heligmosomoides polygyrus) was investigated in two experiments. In experiment 1 (primary infection), outbred CD1 mice were infected once only with 100 H. polygyrus larvae.