Immunophenotypic enumeration of CD4⁺ T-lymphocyte values in human immunodeficiency virus-seronegative adults in Eastern India.

Abstract

Background: The enumeration of CD4⁺ T-lymphocytes in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-infected individuals is an essential tool for staging HIV disease, to make decisions for initiation of anti-retroviral therapy (ART), for monitoring response to ART and to initiate chemoprophylaxis against opportunistic infections. Therefore, it is important to know the level of immunocompetence of a particular geographical region by enumerating the baseline CD4⁺ T-lymphocytes in HIV-seronegative healthy adults. Aim: The aim was to enumerate CD4⁺ T-lymphocytes counts of healthy HIV-seronegative adults in eastern India. Materials and Methods: Blood samples were obtained from hundred HIV-seronegative healthy adults (mean age 32.6±11.3 years) who attended integrated counselling and testing centre (ICTC-1) for HIV information. Immunophenotypic enumeration of CD4⁺ T-lymphocytes was carried out using flow cytometer. Results: The mean absolute CD4⁺ Tlymphocytes count was 823.9(±243.4)cells/μl. The established range of CD4⁺ T-lymphocyte counts for men and women were 338 – 1292 cells/μl (mean 793.4±243.5 cells/μl) and 402 – 1321 cells/μl (mean 885.9±234.8 cells/μl) respectively. Women had significantly higher absolute CD4⁺ T-lymphocyte counts (p<0.001) when ompared to men. The distribution of mean absolute CD4⁺ T-lymphocyte counts among different age groups showed that individuals within 18 to 27 years of age group had significantly higher CD4⁺ T-lymphocyte counts of 893.3±43.4) cells/μl. Conclusions: Our findings of CD4⁺ Tlymphocyte counts among HIV-seronegative adults in east India adds to the emerging data supporting the presence of significant differences in reference to CD4⁺ T-lymphocyte counts between different populations within and outside the country.

Keywords: CD4⁺ T-lymphocytes, HIV, ART, immunocompetence