Title: BLOOD DONORS WITH INDETERMINATE HTLV-I/II WESTERN BLOT RESULTS: SHOULD THEY BE FURTHER TESTED?
Abstract: P151 Donors with reactive HTLV-I/II screening test (EIA, Organon Teknika) and showing bands in Western blot (WB, Cambridge Biotech and/or Genelabs Diagnostics) which do not fulfill criteria for positivity are classified as HTLV-I/II indeterminate. Some authors believe that this result does not represent a true HTLV infection. We report 79 cases of blood donors with EIA repeatedly reactive and indeterminate WB results, who had their PBMCs tested by nested PCR for HTLV-I/II. Among the 79 serologically indeterminate samples tested, 7 (8.86%) were found to be PCR positive. Two of these patients, who previously showed indeterminate WB profile have fully seroconverted in two years of follow-up, now fulfilling the positive criteria, as follows: (Table)TableThe finding of seven patients with indeterminate HTLV-I/II WB and positive PCR shows us that we cannot generalize that patients with indeterminate profile are not truly infected with HTLV. In addition, a seroconvertion occurring in an adult in a period of two years of observation, adds to the belief that these patients should be followed up and additional confirmatory tests be performed in order to evaluate the true significance of indeterminate HTLV-I/II WB results.
Publication Year: 1999
Publication Date: 1999-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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