HIV Drug Resistance and Resistance Testing

What About Using Genotypic and Phenotypic Tests Together?

Using both tests together could certainly help deal with some of the weaknesses of each test administered individually. However, this can be very expensive and time consuming.

A test is now being developed in Europe that combines genotypic testing results with phenotypic testing results. This test, called VirtualPhenotype, first analyzes HIV's genotype. Once the genotype has been determined, the laboratory searches a database containing the genotypes of more than 65,000 HIV samples collected from other patients. Then it retrieves the phenotypes -- the IC50s and IC90s -- that correspond to these samples, averages the information together, and predicts the drugs that the current sample might be sensitive to or resistant to.