Predicting AIDS-related events using CD4 percentage or CD4 absolute counts 英文参考文献.docVIP

AIDS Research and Therapy BioMedCentral Research Open Access Predicting AIDS-related events using CD4 percentage or CD4 absolute counts Yasmin Pirzada, Sadik Khuder and Haig Donabedian* Address: College of Medicine, University of Toledo, Department of Internal Medicine, 3120 Glendale Ave, Toledo, OH 43614, USA Email: Yasmin Pirzada - idypirzada@; Sadik Khuder - skhuder@; Haig Donabedian* - hdonabedian@ * Corresponding author Published: 17 August 2006 Received: 05 May 2006 Accepted: 17 August 2006 AIDS Research and Therapy 2006, 3:20 doi:10.1186/1742-6405-3-20 This article is available from: /content/3/1/20 ? 2006 Pirzada et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background: The extent of immunosuppression and the probability of developing an AIDS- related complication in HIV-infected people is usually measured by the absolute number of CD4 positive T-cells. The percentage of CD4 positive cells is a more easily measured and less variable number. We analyzed sequential CD4 and CD8 numbers, percentages and ratios in 218 of our HIV infected patients to determine the most reliable predictor of an AIDS-related event. Results: The CD4 percentage was an unsurpassed predictor of the occurrence of AIDS-related events when all subsets of patients are considered. The CD4 absolute count was the next most reliable, followed by the ratio of CD4/CD8 percentages. The value of CD4 percentage over the CD4 absolute count was seen even after the introduction of highly effective HIV therapy. Conclusion: The CD4 percentage is unsurpassed as a parameter for predicting the onset of HIV- related diseases. The extra time and expense of measuring the CD4 absolute count may be unnec