Precise performance when meeting HIV challenges
The Abbott RealTime HIV-1 assay provides:
- Enhanced precision: Provides strong performance measuring low-level viremia
- Accurate monitoring: Confidence to reliably detect changes to patient's response status
- Unique assay design: Partially double stranded probe, highly conserved target region and specific temperature profile ensure reliable detection of all groups and subtypes
Addressing the Challenges of HIV
The Abbott RealTime HIV-1 assay is engineered to address the challenges of HIV:
The genetic heterogeneity of HIV-1 presents a significant challenge to the development of assays capable of reliably detecting and quantifying HIV-1 nucleic acid. Although certain subtypes dominate in specific areas, studies show that the spread of different HIV-1 groups and subtypes is increasing globally.
HIV-1 diversity can be attributed to:
- Error-prone reverse transcriptase enzyme
- Recombination of subtypes
- Cross-specific transmission
Physiological Blip or Random Assay Variation?
A detectable low-level viremia following a previous viral load below the limit of detection or undetectable may be:
- A true increase of the viral load level, such as the first step toward the development of resistance
- A physiological blip caused by e.g. release of virus from a reservoir
- An assay artifact measurement such as random variations (imprecision) around the decision point
Each HIV-1 positive viral load result can generate anxiety among both clinicians and patients concerning the adequacy of therapy. In cases where these results are driven by random assay variation this may lead to unnecessary additional testing.
Abbott RealTime HIV-1 assay demonstrates high precision around the clinical decision point and minimizes the risk of reporting a low-level viremia result due to random assay variation.