Diagnostic & Monitoring Tests

Philip Cunningham NSW State Reference Laboratory for HIV, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney NSW Last reviewed: May 2019 Introduction The diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) and human immunodeficiency virus-2 (HIV-2) infection is usually made by the detection of circulating antibodies in blood. Antibodies are identified by the use of a screening test (standard test), usually …

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HIV antibody enzyme immunoassay Because of its rapidity, sensitivity and low cost, the enzyme immunoassay (EIA) is the standard screening tool for HIV infection[1]. Synthetic and native HIV antigens, fixed on a solid phase, are exposed to and bound by HIV antibodies in test serum. These antibodies are then detected by a second antibody to …

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HIV-2 infection is rare in Australia and antibodies to HIV-2 proteins in most sera from people with HIV-2 infection will cross-react with HIV-1 proteins in Western Blot assays. Specific HIV-2 Western Blot assays can be used to confirm HIV-2 infection and distinguish it from HIV-1. However, the cross-reactivity between HIV-1 and HIV 2 is often …

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HIV RNA quantification (or viral load) is a critical tool in the management of HIV disease. Detection of HIV RNA can help provide a positive diagnosis of HIV infection in certain clinical situations, such as acute or neonatal infection, where standard serological testing is inappropriate or unclear. Quantification of HIV RNA levels allows and predicts …

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Tissue culture allows HIV to be expanded and propagated in vitro by its culture with donor peripheral blood mononuclear cells in the presence of stimulatory factors such as interleukin 2 (IL-2). Coculturing of patient peripheral blood mononuclear cells, or cells from other body compartments suspected to be infected with HIV, with stimulated donor peripheral blood …

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HIV shows a high rate of genomic evolution due to the error-prone nature of RT (which introduces random sequence changes into newly produced viral RNA)[23],  the high rate of viral production, and the rapid turnover of productively infected cells. For these reasons HIV strains rapidly develop resistance to antiretroviral monotherapy through the acquisition of mutations …

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