title: Limited usefulness of lymphocytopenia in screening for AIDS in hospital patients.
abstract: Lymphocytopenia is often present in patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and has been suggested as a useful screening test for AIDS. Of 625 patients consecutively admitted to an acute care university teaching hospital 91 (15%) were found to have a lymphocyte count of less than 1 X 10(9)/L, and 25 (4%) had a count of less than 0.5 X 10(9)/L. The corresponding figures for 32 patients at the hospital in whom AIDS had been diagnosed were 13 (41%) and 4 (13%). Absolute lymphocyte counts in hospitalized patients should not be used as the sole means of identifying patients at high risk for AIDS.
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008231:Lymphopenia / Q000097:blood*; D012306:Risk