To Teak

[Joan123]

Teak,

I have the impression that you may know about this, so may question is: What is the difference between HIV- RNA and HIV DNA PCR tests?

[mike_no]

Joan,
RNA PCR: It's a quantitative test, it scales the amount of viral load in the body

DNA PCR: It's a qualitative test, it directly looks for the presence of virus in the body

[mike_no]

Non of them are recommended for diagnostic purpose since they are very prone to false positives how ever false negatives are very unlikely to be yeilded

[Joan123]

Thanks Mike!

[scared_25]

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/testing/resources/qa/be_tested.htm#tested

"Another type of test is an RNA test, which detects the HIV virus directly. The time between HIV infection and RNA detection is 9-11 days. These tests, which are more costly and used less often than antibody tests, are used in some parts of the United States."

My thoughts:

PCR-DNA takes on average a month to be detectable.  It looks for the "DNA" chain rather then the virus.  Both kinda the same, but not.

PCR-RNA is actually looking for the virus (viral load) and can be detected sooner then PCR-DNA, before the body starts to produce Antibodies to bring the viral load down, to sometimes undetectable levels, but not in most cases.