What does an XMRV positive test result from VIP Dx mean?

[Karin]

But the tweet wasn't direct from Dr Mikovits was it (I tried to trace it back)? We don't have direct statement from the WPI / VIPdx/ UNEVX.

I contacted the Unevx and confirmed that they are not accepting any further bloods for XMRV/HGRV testing.

Why I don't know. It may be a precuationary measure from them. What it means we can only guess.

If I were them I'd rather voluntary discontinue testing than being forced to do so by the FDA. This way they avoid any more humiliation and bad press.

[Wildaisy]

The reason they can't continue to use the same test, no matter what they call it, is because WPI was unable to validate the VIP Dx test.
 
One point I want to emphasize is that it is VIP Dx's test results that are in question here, not the research results upon which WPI relied in its research publications.  The problem with the VIP tests would not affect the results of tests used in research at WPI because WPI researchers used several tests on each sample, and VIPDx used totally different tests and sample matrices that were never validated against WPI methods or done with the appropritate controls.   
 
Dr. Judy Mikovits was not part of VIP Dx, and she is not part of UNEVX either, as far as I know.  Whatever problems VIP Dx has, they are theirs and not WPI'S.

[Tango]

Not correct WD.

These are the assays that detected HGRVs in Lombardi, thus the VIP-Dx tests are scientifically validated and at the moment are the only ones that are.

The assays in the BWG are not those used in Lombardi or by VIP-Dx.

[Flopsy]

Wildaisy, I still can't see the relationship between the VIPDx test and the BWG.

With the VIP dx test they are able to control the type of blood tubes used, the methods used, the preservatives used, the length of culture etc.

Things were different on the BWG, conditions were imposed on them out of their control.  So the failure in the BWG is purely a failure in the BWG it has nothing to do with the VIP dx test or as you pointed out the WPI test.

[hatshepsut]

I posted about this on another thread too I think.

I am positive for a HGRV on serology from VIP.dx and I can't see anything on the BWG that makes me think I am not positive. The BWG does not make that result unsure in any way.

I hope UNEVX is just on "a break" and will be back soon with testing. It was important for me that I got tested and I hope others too will have the chance back soon.

[Robyn]

The WPI assay used here was not the one used by VIP-Dx which is based on activated cultured PMBCs. The serology test is also based on cultured PMBCs

These are the assays that detected HGRVs in Lombardi, thus the VIP-Dx tests are scientifically validated and at the moment are the only ones that are.

These 2 statements contradict each other. How can it be NOT the assay they used then also be the one they did use? Am I missing something here?

I agree with this statement: 

The WPI PCR was the only assay capable of detecting a HGRV in the blood working group study, because all the others were based on VP62.

[joy]

As far as I am concerned I consider my test as valid.   If others wish to believe otherwise that is up to them.  I see no reason on the basis of what we know so far that it would not be so.  The method used on my test where the same as used by WPI.

When I got tested I did so in full knowledge that it was of no clinical use and that things might change re testing.   I did it purely for myself.  I knew full well that it would not be accepted until it was FDA approved by  mainstream medicine.   In that way it is no different to many of the tests I have had.

[Tango]

The WPI assay used here was not the one used by VIP-Dx which is based on activated cultured PMBCs. The serology test is also based on cultured PMBCs

These are the assays that detected HGRVs in Lombardi, thus the VIP-Dx tests are scientifically validated and at the moment are the only ones that are.

No they don't.

The VioDx assays are from Lombardi.  The BWG ones are not and are not those used by ViPDx.

[hatshepsut]

No they don't.

The VioDx assays are from Lombardi.  The BWG ones are not and are not those used by ViPDx.

Okey it took sometime before I understood this V.

You mean that the VIP.dx test are done by the methods used in Lombardi et al. But the tests WPI had to use in BWG are different tests from the VIP.dx testing and also from Lombardi et all.

[Tango]

No the BWG tests were never used in Lombardi either.

The absence of Trizol prevented this for one.  They also didn't let them do a full culture and actually didn't let them complete the assay they were doing for culture. 

[Wildaisy]

http://treatingxmrv.blogspot.com/2011/10/square-one.html#comments

I think what the BWG results mean is that all the XMRV/HGRV testing done at VIP Dx has been and is now null and void. Keep in mind that Dr. Mikovits works at the WPI research lab, which is a separate lab from the clinical, commercially-oriented VIP Dx lab. She believes that she has reproduced her original work many times and found evidence of infection in the patients who were previously found XMRV positive. But she never found any single patient positive on every date tested by every assay. So there has been an assumption that there were false negatives in the WPI research lab for some time. Another important thing to keep in mind is that WPI routinely used several tests on each sample, whereas VIP Dx used different, more limited testing, on the samples they received, testing that apparently was never truly validated against WPI methods or performed with appropriate controls. I personally don't know why this was the case or how it happened. Obviously the decision to sell a test was a very poor one, hindsight being 20/20. It left the institute with a difficult conflict of interest.