Dried blood spots (DBSs) and dried plasma spots (DPSs) are an attractive method for
serological and molecular diagnosis of HIV infection. Recently, Youngpairoj et al.
[Youngpairoj, A.S., Masciotra, S., Garrido, C., Zahonero, N., de Mendoza, C., Garcia-Lerma,
J.G., 2008. HIV-1 drug resistance genotyping from dried blood spots stored for 1 year
at 4 degrees C. J. Antimicrob. Chemother. 61, 1217-1220] showed that HIV-1 can be
genotyped efficiently from DBS specimens stored at 4 degrees C for 1 year. The viral
load obtained from DBS and DPS samples was compared with that obtained from plasma
samples. A total of 86 samples was prepared from people infected with HIV subtype
B or non-B and spotted on 903 filter papers stored with desiccant at 4 degrees C.
RNA was extracted using the QIAamp Viral RNA mini kit (Qiagen, Courtaboeuf, France).
RNA from DBS or DPS samples was quantified in accordance with the Agence Nationale
de Recherche sur le SIDA (ANRS, AC11, Paris, France) assay for HIV-1 quantitation.
When the mean viral load of plasma samples and DPS samples or plasma samples and DBS
samples were compared, there were no significant differences. The overall data showed
that although the sensitivity threshold of the assays was different, there was a correlation
between the three specimen types and that DBS and DPS samples can be routinely used
for viral load quantification particularly in resource-limited settings.