Brief summary of the legal proceeding.

The panel, held in Rome in April 2002 with the participation of more than 100 Italian directors of infectious diseases wards, followed a systematic approach to reviewing the evidence of any specific use of the genotypic assays to detect antiretroviral resistance. The single recommendations have been developed using a rating scheme based on consideration of the evidence and, when direct evidence was lacking, on expert opinion. Another emerging issue approached during this meeting is represented by the reproducibility of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase and protease sequencing in clinical settings. The degree of concordance of genotypic assays among 12 experienced laboratories is also reported.