. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Mar 30.

Published in final edited form as: J Clin Virol. 2009 Sep 23;46(4):309–313. doi: 10.1016/j.jcv.2009.08.015

Table 5.

Comparisons of Viral Levels Obtained with Methods of Processing and Collection

Methodology	Mean Vaginal Viral Level (copies/swab)	Range Vaginal Viral Level (copies/ swab)	Comparison^*
RNAlater processing⁺	651.4	<50 – 19,952	p=0.52
Immediate processing	884.4	<50 – 16,595	p=0.52
Self-swab collection^#	4840.7	<50 – 222,387	p=0.53
Provider collection	3896.0	<50 – 191,953	p=0.53

⁺

comparison of duplicate samples collected by a provider from 43 subjects

comparison of samples collected from 54 subjects; self-collected samples were collected approximately 30 minutes prior to provider-collected specimens

Mann Whitney Wilcoxon Rank Sum; Variability in levels is expected due to independent samplings and virus quantitation near the level of detection.

Median vaginal HIV RNA value for all methodologies was 50 copies per swab.