Evaluation of four HIV antigen tests

A direct comparison of different HIV antigen assays is very helpful in maki ng an informed choice. not only For the testing laboratories but also for h ealthcare workers in the developing world who are looking for reliable and inexpensive tests/methods in the follow-up of their treated patients. As a follow-up to the study published previously [Fransen K., Martens G., Stynen D., Goris A., Nys P., Nkengasong J., Heyndrickx L., Janssens W., van der G reen G.. 1997. J. Med. Virol. 53, 31-35] where only two tests have been com pared, four different commercial methods for HIV antigen determination in p lasma and supernatant of cell cultures have now been evaluated on a limited sample size (88). COULTER(TM) HIV-1 p24 Antigen Assay (Coulter). (Test 1) INNOTEST HIV Antigen mAb (Innogenetics) (Test 2), Genetic Systems(TM) HIV-1 Ag ETA (Sanofi-Pasteur(1)) (Test 3) and VIDAS HIV P24 II(bioMerieux) (Test 3). Of the four tests used in this study, Test 2 was by far the most sensi tive test. In a population of XX follow-up samples from 35 different patien ts representing all stages of infection. the test detected confirmed p24 an tigen at least once in 85.7% (30/35) of these patients, versus Test 3 in 74 .3% (26/35). Test 4 in 71.4% (25/35). and Test 1 in 48.6% (17/35) of the pa tients. Test 2 detected confirmed p24 antigen in 84.9% of the follow-up sam ples, followed by Test 4 (65.9%) Test 3 (64.8%) and Test 1 (39.8%). Finally , Test 2 also proved best for detecting genetically diverse isolates. (C) 2 001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.