Evaluation of the use of additional capabilities of immunochemiluminescent analysis for determining the duration of infection with human immunodeficiency virus

Abstract

Early assessment of HIV incidence is an important public health tool for understanding the state of the epidemic in a particular area, identifying high-risk groups, and assessing the effectiveness of HIV prevention interventions.Objective. To assess the possibility of using the positivity rate (S/CO) in the HIV Ag/Ab immunoassay on the Alinity i analytical platform to determine the duration of infection during HIV screening.Materials and methods. The study included 316 HIV-infected patients with different infection durations. Immunochemical analysis was performed on an Alinity i automatic analyzer (Abbott Laboratories, USA) using the Alinity i HIV Ag/Ab Reagent Kit (Abbott Laboratories, Germany) in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.Results. Statistical analysis of 316 blood samples from HIV-infected patients at different stages of infection demonstrated the reactivity of the Alinity i HIV Ag/Ab test result and a dynamic increase in the positivity ratio during the first six months after the onset of the disease. Based on the data obtained, a threshold value (≤294 conventional units) was obtained for the positivity ratio, which allowed for a clear distinction between HIV-positive patients with a recent (<6 months) period of infection. At the same time, the sensitivity and specificity indicators for detecting recent infection in the CMIA analysis were 79,0% and 63,2%, respectively.Conclusion. The additional usage of the positivity ratio in the Alinity i HIV Ag/Ab CMIA analysis meets the acceptability criteria for assessing the duration of HIV infection and can be a useful tool for analyzing the stage of the epidemic in a particular territory.

Keywords

• hiv infection
• cmia analysis duration of infection
• recent infection