AI Article Synopsis

  • The study highlights the importance of determining viral loads for HIV-1, HBV, and HCV in patient follow-up, emphasizing the role of quality control programs in microbiology labs.
  • In the 2016 SEIMC External Quality Control Programme, 40% of participating labs reported inconsistent results for HIV-1, while HCV and HBV results were largely accurate, with over 85% of labs within acceptable ranges.
  • The findings underscore the need for consistency in testing methods and suggest using the same lab for ongoing patient monitoring to reduce interlaboratory variability.

Article Abstract

Background: Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and hepatitis B (HBV) and C virus (HCV) viral load determinations are among the most important markers for the follow-up of patients infected with these viruses. Microbiology laboratories have a variety of tools to ensure the accuracy of the results obtained, including external quality control programmes such as that of the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (SEIMC). This article summarises the results of the 2016 SEIMC External Quality Control Programme for HIV-1, HCV, and HBV viral loads.

Methods And Results: In the HIV-1 programme, a total of 5 standards were sent. One standard consisted of seronegative human plasma, while the remaining 4 contained plasma from 3 different viremic patients, in the range of 2-5 log copies/mL. A significant proportion of the laboratories (40% on average) obtained values out of the accepted range (mean ± 0.25 log copies/mL), depending on the standard and on the method used for quantification. The HBV and HCV programme consisted of 2 standards with different viral load contents. Most of the participants, 86.5% in the case of HCV and 85.6% in the case of HBV, obtained results that were all within the accepted range (mean ± 1.96 SD log UI/mL).

Conclusions: Data from this analysis reinforce the utility of proficiency programmes to ensure the quality of the results obtained by a particular laboratory. Due to the marked interlaboratory variability, it is advisable to use the same method and the same laboratory for patient follow-up. Supplement information: This article is part of a supplement entitled «SEIMC External Quality Control Programme. Year 2016», which is sponsored by Roche, Vircell Microbiologists, Abbott Molecular and Francisco Soria Melguizo, S.A. © 2019 Elsevier España, S.L.U. and Sociedad Española de Enfermedades Infecciosas y Microbiología Clínica. All rights reserved.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0213-005X(19)30176-4DOI Listing

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