Clinical evaluation of a simple image cytometer for CD4 enumeration on HIV-infected patients.
BACKGROUND
Affordable, easy-to-use, and reliable CD4(+) T lymphocyte enumeration systems are needed in resource-constrained settings to monitor HIV.


METHODS
A simple image cytometer was used to count fluorescently labeled CD4(+) T and CD8(+) T lymphocytes from CD3 immunomagnetically selected cells on blood specimens of 460 HIV-1-infected patients in Siriraj Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand. Results were compared with flow cytometry (FCM).


RESULTS
CD4(+) T lymphocyte counts by image cytometer were comparable (R > or = 0.97) with those by the FACSCount and the FACScan with a bias of 7.3 and 9.1%, respectively. At very low CD4(+) T lymphocyte counts (< or =50/microl) some over-count outliers were observed by the FACScan and image cytometer when compared with the FACSCount. For CD8 enumeration, the image cytometer showed a good correlation (R = 0.96) and a consistent undercount (approximately 17%) when compared with the FACSCount.


CONCLUSIONS
Evaluation of the image cytometer for CD4 and CD8 enumeration demonstrated comparable results with FCM on a population of HIV-1-infected patients. The image cytometer is a good alternative method for point-of-care settings in resource-constrained countries.
Li
Xiao
X
Department of Medical Cell Biophysics, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.
Breukers
Christian
C
Ymeti
Aurel
A
Pattanapanyasat
Kovit
K
Sukapirom
Kasama
K
Terstappen
Leon W M M
LW
Greve
Jan
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology*; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology*; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology*; D015497:HIV-1; D006801:Humans; D019044:Image Cytometry / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets