Plasma VL was measured quantitatively with the Roche Amplicor version 1.5 ultrasensitive assay with a lower limit of quantification of 50 copies/mL (Roche Diagnostics), before replacement with the COBAS TaqMan HIV-1 Test version 2.0 (Roche Diagnostics) with a lower limit of quantification of 20 copies/mL. Plasma VL was measured at the time of study enrollment, every 2 weeks from the date of enrollment through week 4 of ART, every 4 weeks from week 4 through week 24 of ART, and every 12 weeks thereafter. Single-copy HIV-1 RNA levels were measured retrospectively using ultrasensitive hybrid real-time/digital PCR, as previously described (51 (link), 52 (link)). The AUC was calculated by adding the AUC measured in the study starting at ART initiation and the estimated AUC at each AHI stage derived from the VL trendline in untreated AHI (23 (link), 30 (link)).
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