A comparative evaluation between real time Roche COBAS® TAQMAN 48 HCV and bDNA Bayer Versant® HCV 3.0

The HCV virus is a common human pathogen made of a single stranded RNA genome with 9600nt. This work compared two different commercial methods used for HCV viral load, the bDNA Bayer Versant (R) HCV 3.0 and the RealTime Roche COBAS (R) TaqMan 48 HCV. We compared the reproducibility and linearity of the two methods. Seventy-five plasma samples with genotypes 1 to 4, which represent the population (45% genotype 1; 24% genotype 2; 13% genotype 3; 18% genotype 4) were directly processed with the Versant (R) method based upon signal amplification; the same samples were first extracted (COBAS Ampliprep - TNAI) and then amplified using RealTime PCR (COBAS (R) TaqMan 48). The results obtained indicate the same performance for both methods if they have genotype 1, but in samples with genotypes 2, 3 and 4 the RealTime PCR Roche method gave an underestimation in respect to the Bayer bDNA assay.