Correlation of CD4 count, CD4% and HIV viral load with clinical manifestations of HIV in infected Indian children.
OBJECTIVE
To correlate the absolute CD4 count, CD4% and HIV viral load with different clinical manifestations of HIV in antiretroviral-naive children.


METHODS
The paediatric and perinatal HIV clinic in a tertiary care hospital over a period of 4 years, from January 1999 to December 2003.


METHODS
A total of 92 highly active antiretroviral-naive, HIV-1-infected children were enrolled in a cross-sectional study. The clinical manifestations, age, sex and CDC classification of each patient were determined. CD4 count, CD4% and HIV-1 viral load were estimated at presentation and correlated with various clinical manifestations of HIV disease.


RESULTS
CD4% was higher in infants (p < 0.001) and lower in children over 5 years of age (p = 0.01). Boys had a higher absolute CD4 count than girls (769 +/- 517 vs 532 +/- 430 cells/mm3, p = 0.02). Patients with lymphadenopathy (n = 43) had a high CD4 count (840 +/- 487 cells/mm3, p = 0.01) whereas patients with HIV cardiomyopathy (n = 4) had low CD4 counts (mean 182 cells/mm3, p = 0.04). In patients with failure to thrive (n = 29), the CD4% was low (14 +/- 9%, p = 0.02) and HIV-1 viral load was high (mean 4.5 x 10(5) copies/ml, p = 0.03). CD4 count, CD4% and HIV viral load did not correlate with the stage of the disease as per the CDC classification.


CONCLUSIONS
HIV viral load, CD4 cell count and CD4% vary with age and disease complications in HIV-infected children. However, CD4 count, CD4% and viral load did not correlate with CDC classification.
Shah
Ira
I
Pediatric HIV Clinic, B. J. Wadia Hospital for Children, Mumbai, India. irashah@pediatriconcall.com
D017088:AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001803:Blood Transfusion; D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D016516:CD4-CD8 Ratio; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology* / Q000635:transmission; D015497:HIV-1; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007223:Infant; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical; D016483:Lymphoma, AIDS-Related / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D008297:Male; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000097:blood; D019562:Viral Load
D012367:RNA, Viral