The use of AMPLILINK version 1.0 software was evaluated for the operation and control of one COBAS AMPLICOR instrument and for two COBAS AMPLICOR instruments run simultaneously to perform and detect nucleic acid amplification reactions. A total of 3,384 results were analyzed. The initial accuracy of the results was 99.91%. Three errors of omission of transfer of data from the COBAS AMPLICOR to ...

PURPOSE Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay, introduced as a fast and sensitive diagnostic method, is useful in detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of in-house PCR assay in the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by comparing PCR results with conventional diagnostic techniques and Cobas Amplicor M. tuberculosis kit. MATERIALS AN...

Cobas Amplicor MTB and later Cobas TaqMan MTB were used to test a very large series of consecutive specimens received for tuberculosis diagnosis. Performance parameters were estimated and compared overall and for separate specimen categories. Both systems showed excellent specificity, and that of TaqMan was the higher. The sensitivities were similar but satisfactory only with respiratory specim...

BACKGROUND The use of real-time Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology options is increasing in resource-limited settings because they are faster, improve assay sensitivity, have higher throughput, larger dynamic ranges and reduced rates of contamination. In 2010, UNAIDS ranked Nigeria as the second highest population of people living with HIV and AIDS (2.98 million people) in the world. ...

This study aimed to standardise an in-house real-time polymerase chain reaction (rtPCR) to allow quantification of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA in serum or plasma samples, and to compare this method with two commercial assays, the Cobas Amplicor HBV monitor and the Cobas AmpliPrep/Cobas TaqMan HBV test. Samples from 397 patients from the state of São Paulo were analysed by all three methods. Fif...

Quantitative measurements of serum hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA are becoming increasingly important in the management of HCV-infected patients. Here we compared two quantitative assays, the COBAS AMPLICOR HCV Monitor 2.0 assay (Roche Diagnostics) and the branched DNA-based VERSANT HCV RNA 3.0 assay (Bayer Diagnostics) for HCV RNA measurement in 344 samples derived from 120 patients with chronic ...

In Kenya, HIV-1 viral load monitoring is commonly performed with the Cobas Amplicor using plasma specimens. Interest is growing in transitioning to real-time PCR (RT-PCR), such as the Cobas Ampliprep/Cobas TaqMan (CAP/CTM), using dried blood spots (DBS). Before implementation, direct evaluation of the two assays using DBS field specimens is required. This study compares the sensitivity, specifi...

A retrospective observational study was performed to determine the sensitivity and limitation of PCR test for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and M. avium complex. We obtained clinical specimens collected from the respiratory tract, cultured M. tuberculosis or M. avium complex, and performed PCR analysis. A total of 299 samples (M. tuberculosis, 177; M. avium, 35; M. intracellulare,...

A second-generation hepatitis C virus (HCV) quantitative assay (COBAS AMPLICOR HCV MONITOR Test, version 2.0; COBAS HCM-2) has been developed, with the intention of achieving equivalent quantification of all HCV genotypes and improving assay performance. To evaluate the clinical performance of COBAS HCM-2 and its utility in predicting the response to alpha interferon treatment, sera from 215 ch...