Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date. Hi I am a 27 year old female that had unprotected sex with a man whose HIV status is unknown. I had a PCR DNA test done at 13 weeks after this incident and it came back indeterminant. The doctor did another PCR DNA and an Orasure antibody test which both came back negative. Do you suggest further testing?
What could the first PCR
indeterminant test mean? Somebody said that it was probably
something in the lab that affected it.
Thank you for your time.
Marty Markowitz, M. D.
Clinical Director
Staff Investigator, Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center
Associate Professor, Rockefeller University
The combination of a negative Orasure and a negative DNA PCR test approximately 14 to 16 weeks after exposure is convincing evidence that HIV infection has not occurred. Further testing will be confirmatory...your decision to have another test should be guided by how you feel...if you need confirmation then have another antibody test, however, what you have done to date is conclusive.
A DNA PCR is reported as indeterminate when it is neither positive or negative....I suspect there was a technical problem with the assay...such as inhibition which would make the test invalid and therefore the test was neither positive or conclusively negative. Inhibition of a PCR reaction can be due to a variety of factors, however, it does NOT imply that the test is positive. The subsequent negative test in the presence of a negative antibody test is convincing evidence that HIV infection is not present.
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