Sorry, my first posting was a bit unprecise.
I can give part of the answer myself:
I succeeded in remembering the name of the test - neopterin test.
I found that neopterin is a marker if interferon-gamma mediated macrophage
activation.
There are publications which deal with neopterin as a diagnostic marker for
inflammatory processes, especially after virus infections. It is discussed
whether neopterin is also a marker for the state of disease in AIDS and
even in HIV-infected, asymptomatic persons.
The problem is, that neopterin occurs in the blood during a various kind
of inflammations, e.g., arthritis. This might be a reason why a neopterin test
is not "suited" for testing blood donations in terms of profit because
many donations would have to be discarded if one does not want to use
neopterin-"positive" blood.
Does anybody know more details about routine testing of blood donations
for neopterin? Is it reliable for HIV-detection? Or is it only a test
used in research? Is the test suitable for detecting any kind of (acute or
subacute) virus infection? What is your opinion?
Thank you
Juliane Meyerhoff
nhchpelt at rrzn-user.uni-hannover.de
