Comparison of Multispot EIA with Western blot for confirmatory serodiagnosis of HIV

A dual 3rd generation EIA algorithm incorporating MS had equivalent HIV-1 sensitivity to the 3rdgeneration EIA-WB algorithm and had the added advantage of detecting 12 HIV-2 specimens that were not HIV- 1 WB cross-reactors that wereNot HIV-3 WB cross -reactors.

Abstract

MS detected an additional 14 HIV-1 infections among WB negative or IND specimens, differentiated 26 HIV-1 WB positives as HIV-2, and detected 12 additional HIV-2 infections among WB negative/IND. A dual 3rd generation EIA algorithm incorporating MS had equivalent HIV-1 sensitivity to the 3rd generation EIA-WB algorithm and had the added advantage of detecting 12 HIV-2 specimens that were not HIV-1 WB cross-reactors. In this series an algorithm using EIA followed by MS would have resulted in the expedited referral of 38 specimens for HIV-2 testing and 40 specimens for nucleic acid confirmation. Further testing using a combined gold standard of nucleic acid detection and WB is needed to calculate specificity and validate the substitution of MS for WB in the diagnostic algorithm used by a large public health laboratory.