A retrospective study was conducted to assess the effects of various degrees of virologic rebound on CD4 cell counts over time in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients. We found that (1) the higher the degree of virologic rebound, the more rapid the decrease in CD4 cell counts over time, and (2) the magnitude of the virologic rebound was inversely correlated with the CD4 cell counts at...

BACKGROUND The effect of previous CD4 cell count nadir on clinical progression in patients with increases in CD4 cell counts has not been investigated. OBJECTIVE To assess risk for progression of HIV disease in patients with CD4 counts of at least 200 cells/mm3 (stratified by the lowest previous CD4 count) and compare the rate of progression in patients with CD4 counts less than 50 cells/mm3 ...

BACKGROUND In chronic HIV infection, antiretroviral therapy-induced normalization of CD4(+) T cell counts (immune reconstitution [IR]) is associated with a decreased incidence of opportunistic diseases. However, some individuals remain at risk for opportunistic diseases despite prolonged normalization of CD4(+) T cell counts. Deficient Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-specific CD4(+) T cell function ma...

BACKGROUND Whether human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seroconverters have been presenting with progressively lower CD4 cell counts over the course of the HIV epidemic is controversial. Additional data on whether HIV might have become more virulent on a population level (measured by post-seroconversion CD4 cell counts) may provide important insights regarding HIV pathogenesis. METHODS To deter...

OBJECTIVE There is a continuous debate on how to adequately evaluate long-term CD4+ cell count in response to combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals. Our study evaluated the long-term CD4+ cell count response (up to ten years) after initiation of ART and described the differences in the CD4+ cell count response stratified by pretre...

Opportunistic diseases (OD) are the most common cause of death in AIDS patients. To access the incidence of OD and survival in advanced immunodeficiency, we included 79 patients with AIDS treated at Hospital Evandro Chagas (FIOCRUZ) from September 1997 to December 1999 with at least one CD4 count <or=100 cells/mm(3). The incidence of OD was analyzed by Poisson's regression, and survival by Kapl...

UNLABELLED BACKGROUND In resource limited settings non-availability of CD4 count facility at the site could adversely affect the ART roll out programme. Point of care CD4 enumerating equipments can make the CD4 count available at the site of care and improve the patients' management considerably. This study is aimed at determining the utility of a Point of Care PIMA CD4 analyzer (Alere, Germ...

BACKGROUND A simple method to estimate CD4 counts in stable, HIV infected virologically-suppressed and immune-reconstituted adults could save the expense of unnecessary formal testing. METHODS Using a baseline CD4 percent, CD4 counts were estimated from subsequent absolute lymphocyte counts (ALC) measured by an automated FBC machine (CD4 estimate calculated by the ALC multiplied by the baseli...

Background.  Given the uncertainty about the ability of a single CD4 count to accurately classify a patient as antiretroviral therapy (ART) eligible, we sought to understand the extent to which CD4 variability results in misclassification at a CD4 threshold of 500 cells/mm3. Methods.  We performed a prospective study of CD4 variability in Malawian human immunodeficiency virus-infected, ART-naiv...

OBJECTIVE To measure the prognostic utility of helper T-cell (CD4) counts in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients undergoing major abdominal surgery. DESIGN Retrospective case series. SETTING Three university-affiliated hospitals. PATIENTS Forty-three HIV-infected patients undergoing major abdominal surgery. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Morbidity and mortality rates with respec...