Abstract
Purpose: We have earlier documented that the south Indian population had lower CD4 counts. The aim of this study was to investigate a previous suggestion on a new CD4+ T cell cut off and association with HIV-1 RNA levels for decision on anti retroviral therapy in India (south). Methods: We evaluated a new methodology i.e., artus real-time PCR and CD4+ T cell count by Guava EasyCD4™ system. From 146 HIV infected individuals seen at a tertiary care centre, blood was collected for CD4+ T cell and HIV-1 RNA estimation. Results: The receiver operating characteristic curve cut off value for the CD4 counts to distinguish between CDC clinical categories A and B was 243 cells/μL, and to distinguish B and C was 153 cells/μL. The RNA level that differentiated CDC A and B was 327473 RNA copies/mL, while for CDC B and C was 688543 copies/mL. There was a significant negative correlation (r = -0.55, P < 0.01) between the RNA estimated and CD4+ T cell counts in HIV infected individuals. Conclusions: A majority with CD4 counts of 201-350 cells/μL in our population had higher viral load than the treatment threshold suggested by the International AIDS society and the above two methodologies are useful in monitoring HIV infections.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 217-221 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology |
Volume | 26 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 1 2008 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Artus HIV-1 real-time PCR
- Gauva easyCD4 assay
- HIV
- India
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Microbiology (medical)