Case Study 83
Scenario
You are working at a physician’s office, and you have just taken C.Q., 38-year-old women into the consultation room. C.Q. has been divorced for 5 years, has two daughters (ages 14 and 16), and works full time as a legal secretary. She is here for a routine physical examination and requested that a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) test performed. C.Q. stated that she is in a serious relationship, is contemplating marriage, and just wants to make certain she is “okay”. No abnormalities were noted on chemistries and hematology studies. The physician requests you perform a rapid HIV test, which is an antibody test. Within 20 minutes, the results are available and are positive.
1.
Does a positive rapid HIV test mean that C.Q. definitely has HIV? If it is negative, does it mean she definitely doesn’t have HIV?
There are three types of results a person could possibly receive from a Rapid HIV test. A Non-reactive or Negative Result means that the test did not detect any HIV antibodies. However, this does not mean that a person is immune to HIV. It can take up to three months from the time of possible exposure for the body to develop the antibodies to HIV. An Invalid Result: does not apply to this case study, but it means this that the HIV test cannot be interpreted. An invalid test result means there was a problem running the test, either related to the test device or the specimen. In this case, another test would be given. People are no more likely to receive a reactive or non-reactive result from an invalid one. A Reactive or Preliminary Positive Result means HIV antibodies were detected in her body. Therefore a confirmatory test such as the Western blot will be given to eliminate the chance of a false positive result. The Western blot is the most common test used to confirm positive results from an ELISA or rapid HIV test. Its advantage is that it is less likely to give a false-positive result because it can more effectively distinguish HIV antibodies
You are working at a physician’s office, and you have just taken C.Q., 38-year-old women into the consultation room. C.Q. has been divorced for 5 years, has two daughters (ages 14 and 16), and works full time as a legal secretary. She is here for a routine physical examination and requested that a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) test performed. C.Q. stated that she is in a serious relationship, is contemplating marriage, and just wants to make certain she is “okay”. No abnormalities were noted on chemistries and hematology studies. The physician requests you perform a rapid HIV test, which is an antibody test. Within 20 minutes, the results are available and are positive.
1.
Does a positive rapid HIV test mean that C.Q. definitely has HIV? If it is negative, does it mean she definitely doesn’t have HIV?
There are three types of results a person could possibly receive from a Rapid HIV test. A Non-reactive or Negative Result means that the test did not detect any HIV antibodies. However, this does not mean that a person is immune to HIV. It can take up to three months from the time of possible exposure for the body to develop the antibodies to HIV. An Invalid Result: does not apply to this case study, but it means this that the HIV test cannot be interpreted. An invalid test result means there was a problem running the test, either related to the test device or the specimen. In this case, another test would be given. People are no more likely to receive a reactive or non-reactive result from an invalid one. A Reactive or Preliminary Positive Result means HIV antibodies were detected in her body. Therefore a confirmatory test such as the Western blot will be given to eliminate the chance of a false positive result. The Western blot is the most common test used to confirm positive results from an ELISA or rapid HIV test. Its advantage is that it is less likely to give a false-positive result because it can more effectively distinguish HIV antibodies