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HTLV antibody screening using mini‐pools
Author(s) -
Dow B. C.,
Munro H.,
Ferguson K.,
Buchanan I.,
Jarvis L.,
Jordan T.,
Franklin I. M.,
McClelland M.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
transfusion medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.471
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1365-3148
pISSN - 0958-7578
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-3148.2001.00339.x
Subject(s) - serial dilution , antibody , medicine , population , blood bank , virology , veterinary medicine , immunology , environmental health , emergency medicine , pathology , alternative medicine
. At the present time, the UK blood transfusion services do not screen blood donations for anti‐HTLV. This presentation describes a pilot study to ascertain the feasibility of HTLV antibody screening using mini‐pools and also provides an estimate of HTLV prevalence within our donor population in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Abbott/Murex HTLV I/II GE80/81 ELISA was selected for the trial. Thirty confirmed HTLV positive library samples were tested at various dilutions and five were shown to be nonreactive at a dilution of 1 : 100. Residues of mini‐pools (of up to 95 individual donations) prepared for HCV NAT testing were tested with the Abbott/Murex GE80/81 assay. Of 6666 mini‐pools (equivalent to 570 609 donations) tested, six were repeatedly reactive. All six mini‐pools were confirmed HTLV antibody positive by line immunoassay. Four were confirmed to be HTLV‐I positive, one HTLV‐II positive and one HTLV positive (unable to type). Dilutions (1 : 100) of the five HTLV ‘nonreactive’ positive samples were included in each test plate and used to determine a grey‐zone cut‐off. Using this grey‐zone system an additional six (0·09%) mini‐pool samples gave repeatedly reactive grey‐zone results, none of which were confirmed. The minimum Scottish/Irish HTLV donor prevalence was shown to be 1 : 95 000.