title: Relationship between T-SPOT.TB responses and numbers of circulating CD4+ T-cells in HIV infected patients with active tuberculosis.
abstract: This study sought to evaluate the performance of the T-SPOT.TB assay for the diagnosis of active tuberculosis (TB) in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected patients. One hundred confirmed HIV-infected patients with active TB and known T-SPOT.TB and CD4+ T-cell counts were enrolled in this clinical retrospective study. We found that patients with lower CD4+ T-cell counts (11-50 cells/μL) had the lowest T-SPOT.TB positive rates (50%), and patients with higher CD4+ T-cell counts (50-100 cells/μL) had the highest T-SPOT.TB positive rates (75%). However, there were no significant differences between the T-SPOT.TB positive rates of patients with different CD4+ T-cell counts (< 10, 11-50, 51-100 and > 100 cells/μL) (χ(2) = 3.7747, p = 0.287). The patients with positive TB culture results had significantly higher T-SPOT.TB positive rates (78.9%) than patients that were culture-negative (44.3%) (χ(2) = 12.8303, p < 0.001). Other variables, including gender, age, TB disease classification, HIV RNA level, and highly reactive antiretroviral therapy (HAART), had no significant effects on T-SPOT.TB positive rates. The number of spot-forming cells (SFCs) reactive with ESAT-6, CFP-10 and ESAT-6/CFP-10-specific T cells detected by T-SPOT.TB were positively is strongly related to the degree of immunodeficiency, while the T-SPOT.TB positive rates are less dependent on the level of CD4+ T-cell depletion in HIV infection and active TB.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University.
authors.forename: Rentian
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Liqian
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.forename: Meiyan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Yinzhong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Renfang
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hongzhou
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000276:immunology*