REASON FOR TESTING OF HIV GENOTYPE

It can be ordered

• At the time of HIV diagnosis to understand if patient has developed resistance to the particular strain of HIV virus so that appropriate treatment regime can be planned for him.
• During the treatment if patient doesn´t show improvement manifested by increase in HIV viral load, then genotype testing can be ordered.

WHAT IS BEING TESTED IN HIV GENOTYPE

It is done to assess the mutations in HIV virus genome .Mutations in the genome leads to decrease drug response hence its important in patients which are not responding to treatment.

INTERPRETATION OF HIV GENOTYPE TEST RESULT

The test results identify the viral mutations. These are described by a combination of letters and numbers where the letters refer to the amino acid associated with the gene and the number refers to the position of the mutation in the genome

HIV GENOTYPE REFERENCE RANGE

Not applicable

HIV GENOTYPE RELATED TESTS

CD4 Count-provide prognostic information about health status of patient. (Link CD4 COUNT)

HIV viral load - provide valuable prognostic information of the patient on treatment. (Link HIV viral load)