I am in two different blood studies, both using the same pcr test for viral load detection. One sample is spun down frozen and shipped to Covance and the other is done in house at Cedar's. The sample are taken in different types of testubes ( one empty and one with a stabilizer of some sort ) For one year I have shown >50 in one study ( the spun frozen sample) and after 16 months I am now nearly >50 ( 68 vl) in the original study. These are direct comarisons ( same sitting blood draw) I know that it is unusual to have this much information but now that the frequency of testing has slowed form every month to every 3 and 4 months respectivily I am in a bit of a quandry about which tests to rely on or if I should do an ocasional random bdna or something like to keep an eye on things? Also what are the proper/approved handeling requirements for samples?

I can't get a feel for what the actual numbers are to see how well the two samples are tracking each other.