In a pilot study using the i-Cylcer real-time PCR system to quantify viral load from select patient and standard DBS RNA preparations, and using Sybr Green dye for detection, we demonstrated comparable performance to that of the LightCycler system ( Figure S1 ; Supplementary section). A significant correlation between i-Cycler and LightCycler based viral loads was observed in DBS specimens (Spearman Ranks correlation, p,0.0001) suggesting that our LightCycler-based DBS assay will have universal applicability.