The 2005 Italian Quality Control Study for the evaluation of CD4 cells in centers involved in the treatment of HIV type 1 patients.
We report the results of an external quality control program, including 17 Italian centers involved in the care of patients infected by HIV, to evaluate CD4 T cell count proficiency and reproducibility. The centers received two commercial stabilized blood preparations, one with "normal" and one with "low" CD4 T cell content. The centers were asked to process the samples two times, 1 week apart, with the same procedure used for samples from HIV patients. Most centers showed a good performance of CD4 frequency and absolute count determinations. In particular, the "low" sample was correctly analyzed by all centers; only two underestimated the "normal" sample CD4 frequency, and only one underestimated the CD4 absolute count by >100 CD4 cells/microl. Overall, our data suggest that most Italian laboratories provide reliable and reproducible results in evaluating CD4 T cells in HIV(+) samples.
Martini
Federico
F
National Institute for Infectious Diseases Lazzaro Spallanzani I.R.C.C.S., Rome, Italy. martini@inmi.it
D'Offizi
Gianpiero
G
Girardi
Enrico
E
Vitale
Alessia
A
Cimini
Eleonora
E
Mollicone
Bianca
B
Vlassi
Crysoula
C
Aiuti
Fernando
F
D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000097:blood* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D007755:Laboratories, Hospital / Q000592:standards; D011786:Quality Control; D015203:Reproducibility of Results