Abstract

Fourth-generation screening assays which permit a simultaneous detection of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antigen and antibody reduce the diagnostic window on average by four days in comparison to third-generation antibody assays. Recently, the new automated Elecsys® HIV combi was compared in a multicenter study to alternative fourth- and third-generation assays, p24 antigen test and HIV-1 RNA RT-PCR. A total of 104 seroconversion panels, samples of the acute phase of infection after seroconversion (n = 33), anti-HIV-1 positive specimens (n = 572) from patients in different stages of the disease, 535 subtyped samples from different geographical locations, including group M (subtypes A-J) and group O, anti-HIV-2 positive sera (n = 364), dilutions of cell culture supernatants (n = 60) infected with different HIV-1 subtypes, selected performance panels, 8406 unselected samples from blood donors originating from different blood transfusion centers, 3810 unselected sera from daily routine and from hospitalized patients, 9927 unselected samples from South Africa and 1943 potentially interfering samples were tested with the Elecsys® HIV combi. Elecsys® HIV combi showed a comparable sensitivity to HIV-1 Ag stand-alone assays for early detection of HIV infection in seroconversion panels. The mean time delay of Elecsys® HIV combi (last negative sample + 1 day) in comparison to HIV-1 RT-PCR for 92 panels tested with both methods was 3.23 days. The diagnostic window was reduced with Elecsys® HIV combi between 1.56 and 5.32 days in comparison to third-generation assays. The specificity of Elecsys® HIV combi in blood donors was 99.80% after repeated testing. Our results show that a fourth-generation assay with improved specificity and sensitivity like the Elecsys® HIV combi is suitable for blood donor screening due to its low number of false positives and since it detects HIV p24 antigen with a comparable sensitivity to single antigen assays.

DOI: Clin. Lab. 2006;52:463-473