Merci NM, Emerence U, Augustin N, Habtu M, Julie I, Angelique T, Jessica B, Cynthia A, Penda AT. CD4+ cells recovery in HIV positive patients with severe immunosuppression at HAART initiation at Centre Medico-Social Cor-Unum, Kigali.
Pan Afr Med J 2017;
26:14. [PMID:
28450993 PMCID:
PMC5398215 DOI:
10.11604/pamj.2017.26.14.10488]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2016] [Accepted: 11/16/2016] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION
Up to 30% of HIV infected patients who are receiving HAART do not exhibit a marked increase in the CD4+ T cell count. There is still a concern that immune recovery may not be complete once CD4+ T cells have decreased below 200 cells/μl. The objective is to assess CD4+ cell recovery in HIV+ patients with CD4 count below 200 cells/μl) at HAART initiation.
METHODS
This was a retrospective cohort study among 110 HIV+ patients with initial CD4 count < 200 cells/μl. Baseline Age, sex, CD4 count and viral load were extracted from the patient's database. After12 months of HAART; CD4 count was done using flow cytometry and viremia by COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan HIV-1 test v 2.0 technology.
RESULTS
The mean age of the respondents was 35 years; males being 57% and females were 43%. The mean CD4 count before HAART was 110.18 cells/μl whereas at 12 months of HAART; this was 305.01 cells/μl. Though some patients did not achieve a CD4 count of more than 200 cells/μl or a drop in viral load; there was a significant recovery of CD4+ cells (P value=0.000) and viremia following HAART (P value=0.001). Participants aged 18-30 years were likely to have less than 200 cells/μl CD4 count (46.4%) [OR=4.33; 95%CI: 1.29-14.59; P=0.018] than participants aged above 40 years (16.7%).
CONCLUSION
HAART was associated with viremia suppression but many patients failed to achieve a CD4 count >200 cells/μl. HAART before severe immunosuppression is a key factor for immune restoration among HIV+ patients.
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