title: The 2005 Italian Quality Control Study for the evaluation of CD4 cells in centers involved in the treatment of HIV type 1 patients.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Infectious Diseases Lazzaro Spallanzani I.R.C.C.S., Rome, Italy. martini@inmi.it
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Martini
authors.forename: Gianpiero
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: D'Offizi
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Girardi
authors.forename: Alessia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vitale
authors.forename: Eleonora
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cimini
authors.forename: Bianca
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mollicone
authors.forename: Crysoula
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vlassi
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Aiuti
mesh_terms: 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