EOT VL is 4702 copies/ml

[Bobby1952]

   I saw my end of treatment Viral Load test today. Not good, it says 4702 copies/ml. I was UND at 10 weeks wasn't tested before that. I am a GT 3a. I will see the GI on thursday. I treated for 24 weeks. Isn't it unusual for a GT 3a to have the VL come back during treatment. Especially so low. This equates to about 940 IUs/mL if you do the math.  
   Here are the test results.

Hepatitis C Virus RNA (HCV Viral Load)  

Test                                                Result                      Units                  Flag              Ref. Range      
HCV Viral Load (Quant)                     4702                        Copies/ml           A                                    

  The lower limit of detection is 3,200 copies/mL or 615 IUs/mL    

  Methodology:  bDNA Signal Amplification technology  


Any ideas? I doubt if this is a false positive so soon.

Bobby

[Bobby1952]

   I am gt 3a. 3a is a usually a very good responder. GT 2 is the only one that responds a little better. GT 3's respond about 70 % and GT 2's respond about 85% of the time. They treat GT 2's and 3's for 6 months only.
   The newer idea and it is very new is to treat GT 2's and 3's for 48 weeks only if they do not reach RVR (4 weeks UND). And this is very new, most doctors won't do this.

Walrus
  Nope. I looked in the computer over the tech's shoulder. Only a Qual. TMA. No Quan TMA. And their Qual. TMA says <50 copies/mL NOT IU/mL. This equates to about 12 IU/mL.

[TeeVee36]

I have never heard of anyone that has GT 3 only doing a 6 mos. tx plan?  Typically it is the GT 2 that only do 6 mos of tx.  Most GT 1's do the SOC which is 48 wks.  Keeping in mind that GT 1's are the hardest to cure.  So, you are Genotype 1a and 1b?

Sorry to hear about your test results.  Why did you only treat for 6 mos?

TV

[IAmTheWalrus]

If they have the Qual TMA, they should have the Quant TMA. I thought they were basically the same test, just that the Quant would report the actual count. My provider uses the same test for Quant and Qual. They say the detection limit for the Quant TMA PCR is 50 IU/mL. My HMO might be the cheap oe (cheap and HMO seem to go hand-inhand). I haven't seen or heard anything about Fibrosure and Fibrospect except here.

Good luck and Happy Easter!

Brent

[Bobby1952]

  Basicly I think my HMO uses a cheap Lab. The only test I saw in their computer besides this one is the Qual TMA which goes down to 50 copies/mL. Which converts to approximately 10 or 12 IU/mL.
  They don't even have a Fibrosure or a Fibrospect blood test.

[IAmTheWalrus]

Oops! Nevermind  :)  I see you have the conversion and mine is way off from the bDNA test. It still seems not very sensitive by comparison.

[IAmTheWalrus]

You can convert from copies to IU. The factor varies depending on the particular test, but if I remember right IU is about 3 times the copies for the most common PCR tests. Not sure about the branched DNA test.  In any case, the test sounds like it is not very sensitive given that the LL of detection is 3200??? I thought everyone used the PCR tests as standard.

[Deb_c430]

Are they using copies?  my Gi doesn't even look at the copies?