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. 1995 Jan;33(1):205–208. doi: 10.1128/jcm.33.1.205-208.1995

Low human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) DNA burden as a major cause for failure to detect HIV-1 DNA in clinical specimens by PCR.

M Zazzi 1, L Romano 1, M Catucci 1, A De Milito 1, P Almi 1, A Gonnelli 1, M Rubino 1, P E Valensin 1
PMCID: PMC227909  PMID: 7699043

Abstract

To determine the sensitivity of a nested PCR procedure for detecting human immunodeficiency virus type 1 DNA in clinical specimens, 553 peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples obtained from 268 human immunodeficiency virus type 1-seropositive subjects were assayed by use of two independent primer sets for each sample. Overall, 1,088 of 1,106 (98.37%) reactions were positive. Investigation of the negative reactions showed that a low viral burden in some infected subjects, rather than primer-template mismatches, was the primary cause for the false-negative PCR results.

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Selected References

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