A baby with congenital cmv infection tested positive using realtime pcr with 1000+ copies/ml of DNA. Further doctors ask for po65 assay why?? How do they go for treatment??
The pp65 assay is an indirect fluorescent antibody test. The virus that is human CMV (HCMV) has phosphoprotein 65 (pp65) which is targeted by the antibody assay. Since the virus localizes in monocytes, positive pp65 antigenemia indicates the virus is present and active infection is present. The PCR was able to detect the viral copies which would help the clinician know the viral load of CMV. Monitoring treatment with viral load assessment may help in therapeutic decisions.