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Dried Blood Spots Stored at Room Temperature Should Not be Used for HIV Incidence Testing


Citation

Eisenberg, Anna L.; Patel, Eshan U.; Packman, Zoe; Fernandez, Reinaldo; Piwowar-Manning, Estelle; Hamilton, Erica L.; MacPhail, Catherine Lorne; Hughes, James P.; Pettifor, Audrey E.; & Kallas, Esper, et al. (2018). Dried Blood Spots Stored at Room Temperature Should Not be Used for HIV Incidence Testing. AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, 34(12), 1013-1016. PMCID: PMC6306669

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The Limiting Antigen avidity (LAg) assay is a serologic assay used for cross-sectional HIV incidence testing. We compared results obtained with the LAg assay using dried blood spot (DBS) samples stored at room temperature (18-25omicronC) or stored frozen at -80omicronC with results obtained from matched plasma samples.
METHODS: Matched DBS and plasma samples (306 paired samples) were collected in the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) 068 trial in South Africa (2012 to 2014). The DBS were stored at room temperature prior to testing. Matched DBS and plasma samples (100 paired samples) from the Consortium for the Evaluation and Performance of HIV Incidence Assays (CEPHIA) were collected in 2016 and were stored at -80omicronC. All DBS testing was performed in 2017. Differences in normalized optical density (OD-n) were compared between matched DBS and plasma samples.
RESULTS: For DBS samples stored at room temperature (HPTN 068), the average difference in OD-n values for plasma vs. DBS was 1.49 (95% confidence intervals [CI]: 1.36, 1.62). In contrast, when DBS samples were stored at -80omicronC (CEPHIA), the average difference in OD-n values for plasma vs. DBS was -0.22 (95% CI: -0.32, -0.13). CONCLUSIONS: DBS samples stored at room temperature should not be used for cross-sectional HIV incidence testing with the LAg assay.

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/aid.2018.0138

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2018

Journal Title

AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses

Author(s)

Eisenberg, Anna L.
Patel, Eshan U.
Packman, Zoe
Fernandez, Reinaldo
Piwowar-Manning, Estelle
Hamilton, Erica L.
MacPhail, Catherine Lorne
Hughes, James P.
Pettifor, Audrey E.
Kallas, Esper
Busch, Michael
Murphy, Gary
Quinn, Thomas C.
Eshleman, Susan H.
Laeyendecker, Oliver B.

PMCID

PMC6306669

ORCiD

Pettifor - 0000-0002-3387-0817