TY - JOUR A1 - Mücke, Marcus Maximilian A1 - Maasoumy, Benjamin A1 - Dietz, Julia A1 - Mücke, Victoria Therese A1 - Simon, Christian O. A1 - Canchola, Jesse A1 - Cornberg, Markus A1 - Marins, Ed G. A1 - Manns, Michael P. A1 - Zeuzem, Stefan A1 - Wedemeyer, Heiner A1 - Sarrazin, Christoph A1 - Vermehren, Johannes T1 - Utility of the new cobas HCV test for viral load monitoring during direct-acting antiviral therapy T2 - PLoS one N2 - Background: The COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan assay HCV (CAP/CTM) is widely used in clinical routine for HCV testing. Recently, the new cobas HCV test was established for high throughput testing with minimal operator intervention. As different assays may yield different quantitative/qualitative results that possibly impact treatment decisions, the aim of this study was to externally evaluate the cobas HCV test performance in comparison to CAP/CTM in a clinically relevant setting. Methods: Serum samples were obtained from 270 patients who received direct acting antiviral therapy with different treatment regimens at two study sites (Hannover and Frankfurt) in 2016. Overall, 1545 samples (baseline, on-treatment and follow-up) were tested in parallel by both assays. Results: The mean difference between cobas HCV and CAP/CTM for the quantification of HCV RNA was 0.008 log10 IU/ml HCV RNA (95% limits of agreement: -0.02–0.036) showing excellent agreement of both assays. With respect to clinical cut offs (HCV RNA detectable vs. target not detected and HCV RNA above the lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) vs.