Current Status of HIV Serologic Test in Clinical Laboratories in Korea in the Year 2007

Background: HIV serologic test which was included in essential blood donor screening needs accurate results. It is important in clinical laboratories to do the quality control and quality management and standardization for accurate laboratory results. Korean National Institute of Health, Division of AIDS, Center for Immunology and Pathology performed annual external quality surveillance assessment (EQS, EQA) with 5 sera panel for all the Korean HIV testing laboratories collaborating with Quality Assurance Committee of the Korean Society of Laboratory Medicine since 2005. The result of HIV test in clinical laboratories was analyzed. Methods: The results of clinical laboratories participated in HIV EQAS in 2007 were collected and analyzed. HIV test results and Questionnaire data were fed on the web site "http://hivqa.nih.go.kr". Three hundred thirty two results from 303 institutions in 2007 were analyzed. Results: The most widely used HIV testing method was automated chemiluminescent immunoassay, such as using Abbott AxSym and Architect system or Roche Elecsys. About 5% of erroneous results were reported among 332 results. The causes of error were mostly clerical errors and specimen errors. Conclusion: Current status of clinical laboratories for HIV testing was on both sides. Fully automated immunoassay analyzers were used along with manual POCT testope