title: CD4/CD8 lymphocyte counts in healthy, HIV-positive individuals & AIDS patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The enumeration of CD4 and CD8 positive cells, surrogate markers for HIV disease progression, is helpful in management and follow up of immunocompromised HIV-positive patients. In assessing the degree of immune deficiency in HIV-positive patients of a particular region, knowledge of reference range of T-cell subset counts of healthy individuals of that particular region is essential. The present cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine the reference range of T-cell subsets in healthy north Indians and to compare the values with those in HIV-positives.
  
  
  METHODS
  Blood samples from 125 HIV seronegative healthy volunteers comprising group I (88 males, 37 females) and 452 HIV- positive patients, divided into group II of asymptomatic (n=137; 93 males, 44 females) and group III of AIDS patients (n=315; 253 males, 62 females) in the age group of 17-60 yr, were analysed for enumeration of CD4+, CD8+ cells/microl by flow cytometry.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In group I, the CD4 and CD8 levels were 687 +/- 219 and 611 +/- 288 cells/microl in males and 740 +/- 255 and 546 +/- 246 cells/microl in females. Overall, a significant depressed level of CD4 (525 +/- 207 cells/microl) and elevated level of CD8 (1174 +/- 484 cells/microl) in group II and (170 +/- 115 and 1051 +/- 586 cells/microl) respectively in group III were observed. Group II patients had highest level of CD8 cells. No asymptomatic women had CD4 count of <200 cells/microl.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings on T-cell subset reference ranges of normal healthy north Indians validate the utility of determination of CD4 cell count as a useful predictor of AIDS in Indian conditions and confirm that a significant per cent of AIDS patients had CD4 cell count below 200/microl.
authors.affiliation: Regional STD Teaching Training and Research Centre, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjang Hospital, New Delhi, India. drkray@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Krishna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ray
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: Manju
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bala
authors.forename: Sumathi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Muralidhar
authors.forename: Joginder
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kumar
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016516:CD4-CD8 Ratio / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values