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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, April 2001, p. 1334-1338, Vol. 39, No. 4
0095-1137/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JCM.39.4.1334-1338.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Comparison of Quantitative and Qualitative PCR Assays for Cytomegalovirus DNA in Plasma

Angela M. Caliendo,1,* Rob Schuurman,2 Belinda Yen-Lieberman,3 Stephen A. Spector,4 Janet Andersen,5 R. Manjiry,2 Clyde Crumpacker,6 Nell S. Lurain,7 and Alejo Erice8 for the Cmv Working Group of the Complications of Hiv Disease Rac, Aids Clinical Trials Group

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia1; Department of Virology, Eykman Winkler Institute for Clinical Microbiology, Utrecht University Hospital, Utrecht, The Netherlands2; Department of Clinical Pathology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio3; Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California4; Department of Immunology/Microbiology, Statistics and Data Analysis Center, Harvard School of Public Health,5 and Division of Infectious Diseases, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School,6 Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Immunology/Microbiology, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois7; and Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology and Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota8

Received 11 August 2000/Returned for modification 13 December 2000/Accepted 22 January 2001

We analyzed the performance characteristics of the qualitative AMPLICOR CMV Test (Roche Molecular Systems, Pleasanton, Calif.) and quantitative COBAS AMPLICOR CMV MONITOR Test (Roche Molecular Systems) assays and compared the performance of the AMPLICOR quantitative assay with an in-house-developed cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNA PCR assay. The quantitative AMPLICOR assay was found to be more sensitive than the qualitative AMPLICOR assay. The quantitative AMPLICOR assay has a lower limit of sensitivity of 400 CMV DNA copies/ml of plasma and is linear to 50,000 CMV DNA copies/ml of plasma. Compared to the in-house PCR assay, the AMPLICOR quantitative assay gave lower viral load values at all concentrations tested, but the difference between the two assays was not consistent across the entire dynamic range of the AMPLICOR quantitative assay. At the lower end of the assay, the viral load values obtained with the in-house PCR assay were three- to fivefold (0.5 to 0.7 log units) higher than those measured with the AMPLICOR assay. At higher input concentrations, the differences between the two assays approached 10-fold. This direct comparison of the in-house assay and the quantitative AMPLICOR assay provides the ability to compare previously published in-house data with an assay widely available for future research and clinical monitoring of patients with CMV infections.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Emory University Hospital, Clinical Laboratory, F147, 1364 Clifton Rd., NE, Atlanta, GA 30322. Phone: (404) 712-5721. Fax: (404) 712-4632. E-mail: acalien{at}emory.edu.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, April 2001, p. 1334-1338, Vol. 39, No. 4
0095-1137/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JCM.39.4.1334-1338.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.




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Copyright © 2001 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.