COMPARISON OF SERUM AND PLASMA VIRAL-RNA MEASUREMENTS IN PRIMARY AND CHRONIC HUMAN-IMMUNODEFICIENCY-VIRUS TYPE-1 INFECTION

We sought to define the relation between serum and plasma HIV-1 viral RNA load in patients with primary and chronic HIV-1 disease. HIV-1 vir al load was determined from 116 serum and plasma samples, including 33 matched pairs, from five patients with primary and three patients wit h chronic HIV disease using the Roche HIV Monitor assay, The mean +/- standard deviations of the serum and plasma viral RNA levels from the 33 matched pairs were 4.372 +/- 0.885 and 4.478 +/- 0.950 log10 (copie s/ml), respectively. This -0.106 log difference between serum and plas ma viral RNA levels, which equates to 21% of non-log-transformed value s, was not statistically significant by the Wilcoxon sign rank test (p = 0.09). The distributions of serum and plasma viral load slopes, cal culated from all available viral RNA load data for each patient, were also not statistically different (p = 0.07). The levels of HIV-l RNA m easured in the serum or plasma of HIV-seropositive patients yield equi valent biologic information.