Comparison of Two Molecular Tests, Roche COBAS<sup>®</sup>AmpliPrep/COBAS<sup>®</sup>TaqMan<sup>®</sup> and Abbott-RealTime in the HIV-1 Early Infants Diagnosis

Abstract

<i>Background: </i>Prompt diagnosis and treatment of infants born to parents living with HIV is essential to reduce infant mortality. The availability of several high-throughput automated molecular tests is necessary to increase the services of early diagnosis tests in infants, especially in countries with limited resources such as Senegal. <i>Objective: </i>The objective of this study was to compare two automated molecular tests, Roche COBAS^®AmpliPrep/COBAS^® TaqMan^®HIV-1 Qualitative and Abbott RealTime HIV-1 Qualitative in the early diagnosis of HIV-1 infection in children born to HIV-positive mothers in Senegal. Methods: The study was conducted exclusively at the molecular biology laboratory of the armed forces AIDS programme at the Ouakam Military Hospital, Dakar, Senegal, between September 2020 and December 2021. It involved 136 children aged between 1 and 18 months born to HIV-1 infected mothers. The samples were taken from blood obtained from the baby's heel, dried on blotting paper (DBS) and sent to the molecular biology laboratory. They were then stored at room temperature before being tested for the study. After these samples were analysed on both molecular techniques, the Abbott Qualitative results were compared to diagnostic tests performed with Roche COBAS^®AmpliPrep/COBAS^®TaqMan^®HIV-1 Qualitative, which is the reference molecular technique. R Studio software version 099.902, 2016 was used to calculate specificity and sensitivity and Kappa coefficient. For statistical tests, they are considered significant when the P-value is less than 5%. <i>Results:</i> Out of a total of 136 samples tested, the overall positive and negative concordance was 94.84%, 79.41% and 93.58% respectively. The concordance coefficient, Cohen's Kappa coefficient, was also analysed. It gave a value of 0.853 (95% CI: [74.7-95.8]). A discrepancy was found between the two tests. Seven samples, which had previously tested positive on Roche Cobas, tested negative on Abbott Qualitative. <i>Conclusion: </i>The result showed a comparable performance characterized by very good negative, positive and global concordances and also, a very high Cohen's Kappa coefficient κ. The present study showed that the two molecular tests are comparable and that the Abbott Qualitative is a practical alternative for the diagnosis of HIV in infants.