RESUMO
The performance of the NucliSens easyMAG platform for the extraction of nucleic acid from different clinical specimens was compared with a manual procedure. A total of 308 specimens were analyzed: 209 plasma samples collected for virus detection and quantification of cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) (n = 70), and 29 for HIV genotyping for drug resistance. Linearity of extraction was tested on dilution series of CMV and EBV; the correlation coefficient (R(2)) for standard curves based on repeated extraction runs was 0.99 for CMV and EBV. Inter- and intrarun variability was in accordance with previous studies, and the correlation between automated and manual extraction was very high. The concordant results were 95.7% for CMV and 100% for EBV. The results of sequence analysis for HIV drug resistance showed a concordance in 24 of 29 specimens. The NucliSens easyMAG is extremely easy to perform, is automated, and resulted in a strong reduction of hands-on time compared with manual protocol.