The higher the HIV RNA levels, the greater the risk of disease progression. In the past, clinical tests of anti-HIV therapies have relied on indirect markers such as CD4 cell counts to evaluate the drug's effectiveness. More recently, researchers have proposed HIV RNA as an acceptable marker for the activity of antiretroviral therapy in reducing viral load. Monitoring HIV viremia is vitally important now that new anti-HIV therapies are becoming available, and PCR has shown potential as a powerful prognostic tool. These controls, and the standardization of test reagents, will allow laboratories throughout the country to perform the test and achieve comparable results when it is approved.
Clinicians can feel more confident that the results are valid and reproducible.
This, in turn, would make an extremely sophisticated test accessible and useful to a large number of patients. Using PCR, technicians in clinical laboratories can produce billions of DNA copies of the RNA from a single segment of the HIV genome. Previous tests have also lacked consistent results, limiting their use on a large scale. Any question regarding a medical diagnosis, treatment, referral, drug availability or pricing should be directed to either a licensed physician or to the product's manufacturer. Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved.