Pooled nucleic acid testing to detect antiretroviral treatment failure in Mexico. Tilghman, M. W., Guerena, D. D., Licea, A., Pérez-Santiago, J., Richman, D. D., May, S., & Smith, D. M. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (1999), 56(3):e70–74, March, 2011.
doi  abstract   bibtex   
BACKGROUND: Similar to other resource-limited settings, cost restricts availability of viral load monitoring for most patients receiving antiretroviral therapy in Tijuana, Mexico. We evaluated if a pooling method could improve efficiency and reduce costs while maintaining accuracy. METHODS: We evaluated 700 patient blood plasma specimens at a reference laboratory in Tijuana for detectable viremia, individually and in 10 × 10 matrix pools. Thresholds for virologic failure were set at ≥500, ≥1000 and ≥1500 HIV RNA copies per milliliter. Detectable pools were deconvoluted using pre-set algorithms. Accuracy and efficiency of the pooling method were compared with individual testing. Quality assurance (QA) measures were evaluated after 1 matrix demonstrated low efficiency relative to individual testing. RESULTS: Twenty-two percent of the cohort had detectable HIV RNA (≥50 copies/mL). Pooling methods saved approximately one third of viral load assays over individual testing, while maintaining negative predictive values of \textgreater90% to detect samples with virologic failure (≥50 copies/mL). One matrix with low relative efficiency would have been detected earlier using the developed QA measures, but its exclusion would have only increased relative efficiency from 39% to 42%. These methods would have saved between $13,223 and $14,308 for monitoring this cohort. CONCLUSIONS: Despite limited clinical data, high prevalence of detectable viral loads and a contaminated matrix, pooling greatly improved efficiency of virologic monitoring while maintaining accuracy. By improving cost-effectiveness, these methods could provide sustainability of virologic monitoring in resource-limited settings, and incorporation of developed QA measures will most likely maximize pooling efficiency in future uses.
@article{tilghman_pooled_2011,
	title = {Pooled nucleic acid testing to detect antiretroviral treatment failure in {Mexico}},
	volume = {56},
	issn = {1944-7884},
	doi = {10.1097/QAI.0b013e3181ff63d7},
	abstract = {BACKGROUND: Similar to other resource-limited settings, cost restricts availability of viral load monitoring for most patients receiving antiretroviral therapy in Tijuana, Mexico. We evaluated if a pooling method could improve efficiency and reduce costs while maintaining accuracy.
METHODS: We evaluated 700 patient blood plasma specimens at a reference laboratory in Tijuana for detectable viremia, individually and in 10 × 10 matrix pools. Thresholds for virologic failure were set at ≥500, ≥1000 and ≥1500 HIV RNA copies per milliliter. Detectable pools were deconvoluted using pre-set algorithms. Accuracy and efficiency of the pooling method were compared with individual testing. Quality assurance (QA) measures were evaluated after 1 matrix demonstrated low efficiency relative to individual testing.
RESULTS: Twenty-two percent of the cohort had detectable HIV RNA (≥50 copies/mL). Pooling methods saved approximately one third of viral load assays over individual testing, while maintaining negative predictive values of {\textgreater}90\% to detect samples with virologic failure (≥50 copies/mL). One matrix with low relative efficiency would have been detected earlier using the developed QA measures, but its exclusion would have only increased relative efficiency from 39\% to 42\%. These methods would have saved between \$13,223 and \$14,308 for monitoring this cohort.
CONCLUSIONS: Despite limited clinical data, high prevalence of detectable viral loads and a contaminated matrix, pooling greatly improved efficiency of virologic monitoring while maintaining accuracy. By improving cost-effectiveness, these methods could provide sustainability of virologic monitoring in resource-limited settings, and incorporation of developed QA measures will most likely maximize pooling efficiency in future uses.},
	language = {eng},
	number = {3},
	journal = {Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (1999)},
	author = {Tilghman, Myres W. and Guerena, Don Diego and Licea, Alexei and Pérez-Santiago, Josué and Richman, Douglas D. and May, Susanne and Smith, Davey M.},
	month = mar,
	year = {2011},
	pmid = {21124228},
	pmcid = {PMC3039117},
	keywords = {Drug Monitoring, HIV, HIV Infections, Humans, Mexico, Plasma, RNA, Viral, Specimen Handling, Treatment Failure, Viral Load},
	pages = {e70--74},
}

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