Guidelines

What are HTLV antibodies?

What are HTLV antibodies?

Human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV) testing is used to detect an infection by HTLV-I or HTLV-II. When the virus enters the body, it preferentially infects T-cell lymphocytes. The body’s immune system responds by producing antibodies that target the virus.

What is HTLV III?

HTLV-III: The human T-lymphotropic virus type III. An obsolete term for the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV.

What causes a false positive HTLV test?

What is meant by a false-positive test result? A false-positive test result means that the initial screening test was reactive, but a more precise supplemental test was negative. Almost all false-positive test results occur because of interference with the test and are not due to infection.

What do positive results for HTLV-I antibodies mean?

Positive results for HTLV-I antibodies indicate the confirmed presence of HTLV-I IgG antibodies in serum, based on 2 visible antibody bands that include gp21-I/-II band, or 3 or more bands, and the sum of the gp46-I and p19-I band intensity is greater than the gp46-II band intensity.

What kind of virus is HTLV-III ARV?

HTLV-III (Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type III) LAV (Lymphadenopathy Associated Virus) ARV (AIDS Associated Retrovirus) When it was discovered that these were all the same virus, rather than having multiple names for the same virus, these names were discontinued, and the name was changed to HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus).

What is the seroprevalence rate for HTLV 1?

In the United States, the combined HTLV-I and HTLV-II seroprevalence rate is about 0.016% among voluntary blood donors. About half of these infected blood donors are infected with HTLV-I, with most of them reporting a history of birth in HTLV-I-endemic countries or sexual contact with persons from the Caribbean or Japan.

Is it possible to differentiate HTLV 1 and 2?

Differentiation of HTLV-I and HTLV-II infection is not possible (ie, nontypeable HTLV antibodies) when the band intensity pattern does not meet the criteria of positive HTLV-I or HTLV-II antibody band intensity pattern.