title: TOTAL LYMPHOCYTE COUNT AS A SUBSTITUTE TO CD4 COUNT IN MANAGEMENT OF HIV INFECTED INDIVIDUALS IN RESOURCE LIMITED SOCIETY.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pakistan is a resource limited society and gold standard parameters to monitor HIV disease activity are very costly. The objective of the study was to evaluate total lymphocyte count (TLC) as a surrogate to CD4 count to monitor disease activity in HIV/AIDS in resource limited society.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross sectional study was carried out at HIV/AIDS treatment centre, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Islamabad. A total of seven hundred and seventy four (774) HIV positive patients were enrolled in this study, and their CD4 count and total lymphocyte count were checked to find any correlation between the two by using Spearman ranked correlation coefficient. Results: The mean CD4 count was (434.30 +/- 269.23), with minimum CD4 count of (9.00), and maximum of (1974.00). The mean total lymphocyte count (TLC) was (6764.0052 +/- 2364.02) with minimum TLC (1200.00) and maximum TLC was (20200.00). Using the Pearson's correlation (r) there was a significant and positive correlation between TLC and CD4 count. (r2=0.127 and p=0.000) at 0.01 level.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study showed a significant positive correlation between CD4 count and total lymphocyte count (TLC), so TLC can be used as a marker of disease activity in HIV infected patients.
authors.forename: Muhammad Yousuf
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Daud
authors.forename: Rizwan Aziz
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Qazi
authors.forename: Naila
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bashir
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010154:Pakistan / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies