Loading...
Should low-level viremia in patients on antiretroviral therapy be interpreted as a sign of virologic failure? Guidelines do not encourage genotyping to evaluate resistance mutations in patients with minimally detectable viral loads. Now, two research groups have published data on the reliability and usefulness of genotype analysis in such patients.
Santoro and colleagues reported the outcome of genotyping attempts on almost 1535 samples collected between 1999 and 2012 from treated patients with low-level viremia (LLV; ≤1000 copies/mL) in Rome, Italy. Genotyping success rates diminished with decreasing viral load: 93% of samples with 501 to 1000 copies/mL could be successfully genotyped, in contrast to 88% of those with 201 to 500 copies/mL, …