hepimax

[ang309]

what does it mean when the hepimax HCV RNA comes back high? the lab test result is 8712H,3.96H

[hrsepwrguy]

Quest Heptimax has linear detection range of 5 - 50,000,0000 and is quantifiable between those numbers ( meaning it an put a specific number on it) basically it says that you are positive for hep c and have a viral load of 8712 IU/ml, the <5 is lower limit of detection of the test, follow the above links and it will explain viral load also here are links to the quest heptimax test

http://www.questdiagnostics.com/testcenter/OrderInfo.action?fn=19702.html&labCode=AMD&orderInfoLabName=null

http://www.questdiagnostics.com/hcp/topics/heptimax/files/hep_c.pdf

[ang309]

ok im wondering why the lab has the  ref range is <5 the result said 8712H
why is that not the same as you expressed? being that you state that it's low.

[hrsepwrguy]

Actually a viral load of 8712 IU/ml is not high it is low, the 3.96 is the same number expressed in logarithmic (log10) form

200,000 to 1,000,000 low

1,000,000 to 5,000,000 medium

5,000,000 to 25,000,000 high

above 25,000,000 very high

http://www.hepatitis-central.com/hcv/hepatitis/loadchart.html

What is Viral Load?
by: Albrecht Ernst

Your viral load is the amount of specific viruses that you have, in a given volume of your blood (usually 1 milliliter = 1 cubic centimeter). More precisely, it means that the amount of Hep C genetic material found in your blood corresponds to as many Hep C viruses as the given number says. Therefore the given number denotes "viral equivalents."

There appears to be no significant correlation between HCV RNA levels and ALT values or histological activity in patients untreated by anti-viral therapies (Interferon). Viral load varies between infected individuals but is not a useful prognostic indicator nor does it measure the severity of virus-induced liver disease.

Logarthmic format

Now, recently some people express these numbers also in logarithmic form (logarithmic transformed number).

log(1730000)=6.24

6.24 is the logarithmic transformed number of the viral load of our above example. A result of 3.5 for a viral load, that someone reported, seems to be such a number (unless he forgot to write down a "10" and an exponent). You need a calculator to convert this. You have to use the function 10x , where you have to replace x with the logarithmic number, in the above case 3.5. The result would be: 103.5 = 3162 virus equivalents per milliliter.

When you take the logarithmic number from the first example, 6.24, you have to calculate 106.24 = 1730000 , and here we have the original number of virus equivalents again. If you don't have a calculator, you can estimate the order of magnitude of a viral load expressed as a logarithmic number. From the logarithmic number, you take the first digit (left of the point) and add 1 to this number. This gives you the number of digits that your viral load has (expressed as a plain number).

http://www.hepatitis-central.com/hepatitis-c/what-is-viral-load.html