AI Article Synopsis
- Relying on external labs for HIV confirmation can delay treatment and increase patient anxiety, prompting the need for internal testing.
- A hospital laboratory successfully verified an HIV antibody differentiation test, which was crucial for speeding up result turnaround times (TATs).
- Post-implementation, TATs improved significantly, with HIV antibody differentiation results dropping from 40.4 to 17.7 hours and HIV-1 RNA results from 156.5 to 56.5 hours, enhancing overall diagnostic efficiency.
Article Abstract
Background: Relying on reference laboratories for HIV confirmation testing may lead to delays in treatment and can cause stress for patients who have positive HIV screening results.
Objective: To internalize HIV-1/HIV-2 antibody differentiation testing within the hospital laboratory.
Methods: We analytically verified an HIV antibody differentiation immunoassay and subsequently compared result turnaround times (TATs) for HIV antibody differentiation and HIV-1 qualitative RNA in the months before and after the test internalization.
Results: HIV antibody differentiation was successfully verified. TATs for HIV antibody differentiation and HIV-1 RNA significantly improved, from medians of 40.4 hours and 156.5 hours to medians of 17.7 hours and 56.5 hours, respectively, after the internalization. The 90th-percentile turnaround times declined by 72% and 44%, respectively.
Conclusions: It is feasible for a hospital laboratory to verify HIV antibody-differentiation testing. Its implementation may considerably improve result TATs for the HIV diagnostic algorithm.
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Source |
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/labmed/lmaa087 | DOI Listing |
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