Another Viral Load Question

[nolachris]

Hi,

I got back my labs the other day and am pretty happy with the results


Viral load at 11,300!  In December, it was 34,524.    September: 18,7290.   Pre-LDN Jan. 09 - 1,280,000


ALT: 25    December: 34    Sept. 36    Pre-LDN Jan. 09 - 174

AST: 30    December: 31    Sept. 37    Pre-LDN Jan. 09 -   99


My doctor uses Quest lab - for some reason, we got back three different viral load test results - the first being the same test that they have been using other than Heptimax - but I am confused between the TMA qualitative and quantitative that they ran.


HCV RNA, PCR test result of 11,300 with a log of 4.05.  It was the COBAS (R) Ampliprep/COBAS, TagMan (R) RNA Test Kit (Roche)

They also ran a Versant (R) HCV RNA Qualitative Assay TMA which simply had NOT DETECTED

A month ago, I went in for partial labs and they were supposed to run a PCR test but they screwed up and ran the wrong test which was a bit irritating -

Quest HCV RNA Quantitative TMA and the results were >7500 with a range of <5


Thanks if anyone can explain the TMA tests run.

Nola Chris

[nolachris]

"They also ran a Versant (R) HCV RNA Qualitative Assay TMA which simply had NOT DETECTED"


Never mind - my doctor called Quest and it turned out that the TMA was not run - just the PCR.  That explains things - I had understood that the TMA was very sensitive and wondered why it would not pick up the 11,400 reflected on the PCR.

Thanks,

Nola Chris

[annfrank]

some of the tests are done within a certain range so if you dont hit that range it won't show up.  Certain tests have diffrent cut off levels.