Systematic Review of the Accuracy of Plasma Preparation Tubes for HIV Viral Load Testing


March 3, 2020

Plasma preparation tubes (PPT) can simplify storage, transport, and preparation of plasma used for viral load (VL) testing. This systematic review evaluated the accuracy of PPTs for HIV VL testing. The results showed that following proper sample handling techniques helps provide accurate results. The authors thus recommended PPTs as a high-quality alternative specimen type for countries seeking solutions to infrastructure and specimen transportation challenges, in an effort to scale-up VL testing and achieve UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets.