positive antibody but negative dna test

I was told that I have an undetermined hiv test. I was told that the screen was positive but the dna test was negative. I have been diagnosed with herpes in the past and was wondering if this could be a problem. Also which test is more accurate the dna test or the antibody test.

[OrionQuest]

From what I know the antibody test is a screening test.  A negative result can be taken as gospel truth, but a positive result must be confirmed by western blot, which looks for proteins.  By DNA I assume you mean NAT or nucleic acid testing?

Lots of things can cause a false positive to the antibody test, including other viral infections.  

[Teak]

An antibody test is a diagnostic test. NAT testing is a screening test. Herpes will not cause a problem with your HIV tests.

[curiousandscared]

Thanks guys, so in this case, which one is more reliable the screen or the dna test.

[regularjoey]

Please tell me you're making this up.  Nobody confirms a screening antibody test with a DNA test.  If you had a positive screening antibody test, you should have gotten a Western Blot done, not a DNA test.  If the WB is negative, you're conclusively negative - unless you had an exposure within the last few months.  

[macgyver16]

I agree with joey it is a routine for a positive ELISA to be confirmed by a westernblot...

[curiousandscared]

i going base on what my doctor said..he said the screen showed positive but the dna showing negative. by dna, i am not sure what he means..so he said it was interderminant. I am not making it up.

[regularjoey]

I recommend going back to your doctor and getting it straightened out!  Just remember, that any indeterminate test - positive ELISA (screen) and negative/indeterminate WB - is a conclusively NEGATIVE test, unless you had recent exposure.  If you had a possible exposure recently, you should get retested in a month.  Good luck!

[curiousandscared]

Thank you regularjoey. I am schedule to retest on september 7th becuse i took the test august 6th.  I will definitely keep you posted. Thanks to everyone for all of the insight you are giving me.

[curiousandscared]

alright guys I am back. I sm havin anxiety attacks. I go back to get retested on friday, I wil definitely ask what kind of test were used. By Dna being negative I was thinking it would be negative  but baed on what I have been reading, i could be wrong. I just want to have a peace of mind.

[Tommy420]

From my understanding based on what you've written, I'm assuming your doctor did the regular antibody testing as well as the DNA testing. The DNA testing is a very reliable test because it looks for the actual virus in your blood while the antibody test looks to see if there are any HIV antibodies in your blood. However, the DNA testing method is not used to diagnose HIV. That being said, there are many occasions in which an HIV Elisa (antibody) will show a false positive. That is why all positive antibody tests are always confirmed with the Western Blot test.

Did they do a western blot? What was the result?

Also, what was your exposure?

[curiousandscared]

Thank you tommy for your response. . I am going to my retest on friday and I will be asking him questions about the first test. I am not sure what tests they used. I will find  out this friday. all he told me was the results were indeterminate because the antibody showed positive but the dna was negative. I am so glad i came on this website because I would have never known to ask about the type of tests that were used. I really appreciate you guys for this.
As far as exposure. I have sex with two people since january with protection. mY last unprotected sex was last novemeber and I had a hiv/std tests doen in december and was diagnoes with herpes.
Before that my exhusband was cheating on me with all kinds of women so i dont even know what to think. I have not have unproteced sex since last november andbefore that it was with my husband well now ex, last year.

[regularjoey]

You need to get the Western blot results, that's the only thing that matters.  Unless it is positive, you are HIV-negative and can forget all your other test results.  I have a good feeling about this, I think you're fine and the ELISA was a just false-positive, which happens.  But you need to get some answers out of the wacky doctor that ran your tests.  Or better yet - find a doctor that actually knows what he's doing and doesn't scare his patients for no reason.

[mike_no]

Joey,

Hope you're doing well, here in Asia some times positive antibody tests are confirmed with NAT tests before confirming the same with western blot, so there's a good  possibility that CAS is not making up things however I agree with  you'll that if one's got an undetermined antibody result, it has to be backed up by a western blot test and not a NAT test.

Mike

[regularjoey]

I was not aware of how things are run in Asia.
Thanks for the clarification!

[curiousandscared]

thanks a lot guys for your commments. I go back on friday, so iw ill be sure to find out what tests were used. the labwork is sent off islands so it might tkae a few days before i get back the results. I am just praying. I will definitley keep you guys posted.

[curiousandscared]

thanks a lot guys for your commments. I go back on friday, so iw ill be sure to find out what tests were used. the labwork is sent off islands so it might tkae a few days before i get back the results. I am just praying. I will definitley keep you guys posted.

[David20]

I Wish you have a negative test. God Bless You

[curiousandscared]

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

[curiousandscared]

alright folks just got back a receipt from the lab that lists the different test they did. I dont knwo what these means

tey have viral ab confirmation, viral antibody 1&2 titer, viral antibody 2 titer,

other tess
cholesterol, folic acid, hmoglobin, lipoproein, tirglcerides, tsh, UA complete automated, cbc, plt, diff
hcg, comprehen metabolic panel..does anyone have a clue on which ones are the HiV ones?

[concerned_1980]

i think viral antibody 1&2 titer, viral antibody 2 titer are the HIV ones. What do they say??

where are you from and what was your exposure ....

[curiousandscared]

well theyare just what i saw on teh bill from the dagnostic center. I go back tomorrow to my doctot to get retested. i am goingto askhim to see the tests results and what they say.

i am from the caribbean.


As far as exposure. I have sex with two people since january with protection. mY last unprotected sex was last novemeber and I had a hiv/std tests doen in december and was diagnoes with herpes.
Before that my exhusband was cheating on me with all kinds of women so i dont even know what to think. I have not have unproteced sex since last november andbefore that it was with my husband well now ex, last year

[regularjoey]

Doesn't make any sense to me, sorry.  Don't forget, ask them about the WESTERN BLOT tomorrow.  I hope you're OK.

[curiousandscared]

thanks

[concerned_1980]

you are going to be fine, I am worried person my self but what i hear from you it is hardly possible to get it that way.

[curiousandscared]

Thank you for the encouragement. I will keep you guys posted.

[regularjoey]

Where are you?  I'm worried about you...

[regularjoey]

I'm holding my fingers crossed that you are OK... but I'd like to hear that from you

[curiousandscared]

hey regularjoey, iI am here. I had to work my two jobs today. Well iI had the bloodwork drawn and I have to wait until nexg friday to get the results because theyhave to send it off to the lab off island. I did get a copy of the lab report from my doctor and here is what it said

HIV-1 ab confirmation by western blot                    IN Range    out of Range     Reference Range
       Interpretation                                                                    Indeterminate    Negative
                                                                                              verified by Repeat analysis

then it says ; IN conjunction with a repeatedly reactive HIV 1/2 screening test, this result may reprsent and incomplete  HIV antibody response or a nonspecific reativity . Patients with a positive  HIv 1/2 screening test and an initial indeterminate HIV1 western blot should be retested for hiv at least  one month later.  A nucleic acid amplication test  (HIV Dna/Rna) may detect virus prior to seroconversion. the laboratory will proceed with HIV2 antibody testing and a subsequent report  of those results will  be issued;

Patient Results :
gp160                                                 Reactive


then anopther section states as follows

HIv 2 Ab, Eia, w/refl WB                           IN Range      Out of Range               Referene Range
HIv 2 Antibody, EIA                                  Nonreative                                       Nonreactive

A nonreactive hiv2 antibody result does not exclude HIV2 infection since the time fram for serocnversion is variable.  If acute hiv infection is suspected anitobdy retesting and nucleic acid amplificatin (Hiv/dna/rna) testing is recommeneded.


so that is basically waht the labs said...I am still confused.

[curiousandscared]

well i guess it all got messed up but

ther were three columns:  in range, out of range and reference range
For the first one indeterminate as under the out of range column and negative was under the reference range column.

for teh second one nonreactive was under In Range column and also the reference range column.

[regularjoey]

It looks like gp160 was the only band on the Western blot, if I understand your results correctly.  In that case I really believe that you are indeed negative!  Don't stress out about your results Friday, it sounds like everything is OK.  Mistakes like that do happen with HIV tests, unfortunately they are far from perfect, false positives are not that uncommon.  Your bloodwork will come back just fine, I'm sure!

Best wishes

[curiousandscared]

thanks for the encouragement.I really appreciate all of yuor concern and infomration. so what is this gp160 about. it said thqt was reactive. that was the only one on there that said that..I will definitley keep you postd on what happens next friday.

I did notice that they did not test for herpes or anythig like that. I know i was diagnose with that in december when i took my last set of tests. so i dont knowif that is a concern.

[coz80]

GP160 is the envelope antigen tested for Type 1 infection in western blot method

[curiousandscared]

thanks for that information..so i was just doing some research and they wer saying if you have 2 or 3 bands combined you are hiv positive.

is ther anythng else that can cause gp160

[coz80]

see i am not a expert here but following is the information that could be useful for you........
I also think in case of positive it is reactive for min two proteins...
"Immunoblot test
The Bio-Rad (formerly Genetic Systems) HIV-1 immunoblot is used as the confirmatory test at HUP. This test utilizes a plastic membrane onto which electrophoresed HIV-1 proteins have been tranferred. When reacted with patient serum, and then washed, antibody in the serum that reacts with the proteins is detected by use of an enzyme-conjugated secondary antibody to human globulins. The end result is a series of darkly colored lines on the membrane. The identity of the lines is determined by comparison with positive control strips. A positive result is one in which the patient's serum reacts with two of the following three proteins: GP160/120 (counted as one protein band, even though it constitutes two distinct bands), GP41, and P24. Thus positive results could be any one of the following three combinations: 160/120 + 41, 160/120 +24, or 41 + 24. An indeterminate result is the presence of any visible band on the blot, and a negative result is the absence of any visible band on the blot. Of note, this test will be called negative in HIV-2 infection, using the above criteria. HIV-2 infection results in cross-reacting antibodies to some HIV-1 proteins (gag and pol, but not env), so a typical finding of HIV-2 infection is the presence of multiple positive bands, including P24, but without GP41 or GP 160/120 reactivity. If a HIV-2 like pattern is seen on the immunoblot then the serum is sent to a reference laboratory for a HIV-2 specific immunoblot"

[regularjoey]

Like coz80 said, gp160 is an envelope glycoprotein of HIV.
One gp160 band on the Western blot means absolutely NOTHING!
Most likely, some of your unrelated antibodies cross-react to gp160, which is what also causing the ELISA to light up positive.
IF YOU HAD HIV YOU WOULD DEFINITELY HAVE OTHER BANDS IN ADDITION TO GP160.

Don't be surprised if your next set of labs looks exactly the same (positive ELISA, one gp160 band).  If that is the case, that test result is conclusively NEGATIVE.

I'm really sorry you have to go through all this!
I wish you the best.

[coz80]

further info from cyberspace
wish you good luck...
"Reported Causes of False-positive EIA and Immunoblot Tests for HIV Antibody*
EIA
Cross-reactive antibodies to some human leukocyte antigens (HLA) that develop as the result of prior blood transfusion or during pregnancy
Auto-antibodies found in some rheumatologic diseases
Heating of serum
Freeze-thaw of serum
Receipt of gamma-globulin
Recent vaccination (influenza, hepatitis)
Renal transplantation
Some liver diseases
Some cancers
EBV infection
Positive RPR tests (syphilis, some autoimmune diseases)
Technical errors in testing
Immunoblot - Usually giving an indeterminate result
Antibodies to some HLAs
Auto-antibodies found in some rheumatologic diseases
Gammopathies
Hyperbilirubinemia
Receipt of gamma-globulin
"

[curiousandscared]

thank you so much guys for all of the information. Ihave learned so muchust being on this site. I am telling this has made a turning point in mylife. I really appreciate you guys looking out for me. I get myresults on friday, so i will definitely keep you guys updated. I am not on as often as i should because I work two jobs. Like today iw ent to work from 4:45 am until 6:30 pm.

I hope that all is well with you guys.
thanks again.

[meworried]

I was going through the series of posts exchanged, very interesting. Regular and coz added a lot of value by putting very valuable information on testing. To me, its also looks that you are "Negative" as suggested by your AB abd WB tests results and i am very hopeful that you will get a conclucively "Negative" test report soon. We wish you the very best for your health,,,,,,,,,, Good luck and keep your fingers crossed.

Just an advice on a lighter note,,,,,,, Its fine to have two jobs even with unknown assignments, but never ever expose yourself to even a single "job" with unknown status. Sometime you do not get second chance.

[curiousandscared]

Thank you very much for your well wishes. I praying for this best myself. I really like your lighter note. I had to read it over a few times to really get it but now I do. I am taking heed to your words. I really appreciate it.

[uglyduck]

Curious... I just hope you the best.. I dont know as much as the other guys, however, it looks like youre negative...

I hope and pray everything comes back negative.. is so hard to see such a nice person going through all this... anyways good luck... and God bless you and you're family... and take good care of yourself...Well be here friday... bet on it!!

[curiousandscared]

Thank you ugly duck, I will definitely let you guys know whats goin gon on friday.

[curiousandscared]

I just would like to say thank you guys for all of your support. I have been going crazy and losing hair and sleep over thisl REgular joey you were right on point. My doctor called today and siad the test came back negative,.I was so happy to hear such greaqt news. It feels good to know that there are people knowledgeable and willing to help and support you at a time like this. I really appreciate you guys for that. I will still be online to offer support. My doctor suggested that i get retested in 3 months.

Thanks agaain guys.

[coz80]

hey curious,
great news !!!
congrats and now don't loose hair and sleep on this.:=))
These tests are said to be conclusive at 3 months or 13 weeks.
So you are negative and that is the best part of this.....
good luck and enjoy
coz

[curiousandscared]

thank you so much. I feel must better and I honestly have a different out look on life.

[regularjoey]

I am really happy that you are OK!

Best wishes and stay well!

[curiousandscared]

thank you. I really appreciate your support and the knowledge that you have shared.