Table 7.: Efficiency of Viral Load Assays in Terms of Workflow (Hands-On Time Before Loading the Instrument, Number of Tests Per Run, Time Needed for Extraction and Detection and Time to Results)

	Abbott RealTime HIV-1 (m2000rt)	COBAS® AmpliPrep/COBAS® TaqMan HIV-1, v2.0 (Roche)	NucliSens® EasyQ HIV-1 v1.2 (bioMrieux)	VERSANT® HIV-1 RNA 1.0 (kPCR) (Siemens)	Artus HIVirus-1 QS-RGQ (Qiagen)
Preparation time prior to loading the samples for extraction	30 min	30 min	45 min	15 min	30 min
Number of tests/run	96	72	72	96	72
Extraction time	2.5 h/48 tests	2 h/24 tests	40 min/24 tests	2.5 h	1.5 h/24 tests
Detection time	3 h	3.75 h	1 h	2.5 h	3 h
Work flow and time for results	6 h	6 h	4 h	5.15 h	5 h