Qualitative Negative, but Quantitative Higher

[HowieB]

The wife has been in treatment (for 2nd time) for several months now, but has been struggling to clear. Most recent labs show Negative for Qualitative, but Quantitive still reflects virus (slightly up from prior month). Is this normal? Her nurse wants to her to redo the labs, which will be done, but we were curious what others have to contribute this situation. Forgive me if this topic has been discussed previously, but I haven't been to MedHelp for awhile.

[jmjm530]

I can only think of three scenarios where this may happen. Scenario 1: lab error of some sort. Scenario 2: The quantitative was more sensitive then the qualitative, although in most cases it's the opposite. Scenario 3: The nurse read the report wrong and confused the tests sensitivity (in the quantitative) as a virus positive result. In other words, the nurse may have read "<50" as 50 IU/ml, when in fact it means no virus down to a sensitivity of 50 IU/ml. From what I've read here, I think scenario 3 ie the most likely -- nurse error, but just a guess. If you haven't already, my suggestion is to get your own copies of both tests and look at them yourself. Feel free to post the results exactly as written here and maybe we can be of some more help.

-- Jim

[HowieB]

We had received the lab results. We also ask for a copy just to keep on top of things. The printout clearly states "negative" on the "HCV RT-PCR RESULTS" section. The results for HCV RNA PCR, IU/mL is *179 and the LOG 10 is *2.3. The numbers were lower last time.

[HowieB]

P.S. -- reference range for IU/mL is <10 and <1.0 for log10.

[zazza]

I would call the laboratory and ask to speak to a doctor there. Ask him to explain the contradicting results. I did this myself when both my doctor and I had trouble understanding my test results.