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Design and Implementation of an External Quality Assessment Program for HIV Viral Load Measurements Using Dried Blood Spots |
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| Authors: | Lisa M. Prach Adrian Puren Sheri A. Lippman Sergio Carmona Sophie Stephenson Ewalde Cutler Scott Barnhart Teri Liegler |
| Affiliation: | aUniversity of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA;bNational Institute for Communicable Diseases/NHLS, Johannesburg, South Africa;cUniversity of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa;dUniversity of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA |
| Abstract: | An external quality assurance program was developed for HIV-1 RNA viral load measurements taken from dried blood spots using a reference panel and field-collected specimens. The program demonstrated that accurate and reproducible quantitation can be obtained from field-collected specimens. Residual proviral DNA may confound interpretation in virologically suppressed subjects. |
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