Unraveling HIV-1 diagnosis in special pediatric cases

Abstract

Background: Early HIV-1 diagnosis and initiation of antiretroviral treatment is essential to prevent AIDS, and reduce mortality in children. HIV-1 molecular diagnosis in children before 18 months of age require, two independent samples to confirm a result. However, some patients have discordant virologic results in different samples, raising uncertainty for a conclusive diagnosis. We defined these patients as “special pediatric cases”. Objectives: The aim of our study was to characterize the “special pediatric cases” among HIV-1 infected children diagnosed in a five-year period at our laboratory and evaluate the impact on the time to HIV-1 diagnosis. Study design: A total of 44 perinatally HIV-1 infected infants with molecular diagnostic performed at the Pediatric Garrahan Hospital were analyzed from 2013 to 2017. Results: We identified eight “special pediatric cases”. In the first samples, all of them had negative results by different DNA-PCR assays. Three infants had undetectable plasma viral load (pVL), four had low detectable pVL value, and one infant had no available pVL. All samples with detectable pVL, including those with low pVL (ie: 65copies/mL), had high pVL values at the end of the diagnosis. Considering the age of the HIV-1 infected children at the end of the diagnosis, five “special pediatric cases” (62 %) had a “late” positive diagnosis [mean (range) = 146 (89–268) days old]. Conclusions: These “special pediatric cases” are not as unusual as previously thought and are important diagnostic challenges. Also, this study add evidence to include the viral load assay in the molecular diagnostic algorithm for perinatal HIV-1 infection.