[Question #13657] How reliable is the LabCorp Roche test?
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1 months ago
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Hello,
About 1 year ago, I had protected vaginal and received unprotected oral sex from a CSW at a massage parlor. Ever since this encounter, I have not seen anything that resembles a typical genital HSV outbreak. About 6 months ago, I had something that looked like a scab on my foreskin but I caught it towards the end of the healing process. Recently, I have also developed some red blemishes that are visible when I pull back my foreskin. I still have not seen anything that resembles the typical painful water blisters that develop into open ulcers. I have had 2 HSV-1/2 tests done at labcorp which used the Roche Elecsys assay. One test was done 6 weeks post encounter and the other was done 16 weeks post encounter and both came out negative. My question is, how accurate are these negative results and can I trust that I do not have HSV1/2?
About 1 year ago, I had protected vaginal and received unprotected oral sex from a CSW at a massage parlor. Ever since this encounter, I have not seen anything that resembles a typical genital HSV outbreak. About 6 months ago, I had something that looked like a scab on my foreskin but I caught it towards the end of the healing process. Recently, I have also developed some red blemishes that are visible when I pull back my foreskin. I still have not seen anything that resembles the typical painful water blisters that develop into open ulcers. I have had 2 HSV-1/2 tests done at labcorp which used the Roche Elecsys assay. One test was done 6 weeks post encounter and the other was done 16 weeks post encounter and both came out negative. My question is, how accurate are these negative results and can I trust that I do not have HSV1/2?
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Terri Warren, RN, Nurse Practitioner
1 months ago
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The Roche test picks up >97% of HSV 2 and 85% of HSV 1 infections, compared to the gold standard herpes western blot. You can be very certain that you don't have HSV 2, but the HSV 1 test isn't quite as good but without more symptoms, I think you are likely fine.
Terri
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