A Study on the Effect of Age, Sex and Baseline CD4 T- lymphocyte Counton CD4 Cell Count Recovery in HIV Positive Patients receiving HAART

摘要

Context: Initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in humanimmunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive patients results in an improvement intheir immunological function. Aim: In the present study, we investigate the factors influencing CD4 cellcount recovery following initiation of HAART in newly diagnosed HIVpositive patients. Material and Methods: In this cross sectional analysis, 104 newly diagnosedHIV infected adults started on antiretroviral therapy were included and theoutcome to HAART assessed at six months follow up and correlated with age,sex and baseline CD4 T- lymphocyte count of the subjects. Results: Mean CD4 count improvement was significantly higher in those withbaseline CD4 count >100 cells/ul (p value <0.001). Though the mean CD4improvement was also higher in patients <45 years of age, the difference wasnot statistically significant (p = 0.14). The mean CD4 increase was similar inboth males and females. Conclusion: Poor immune reconstitution following initiation of HAART seemsfrequent in individuals with low baseline CD4 counts and in elderly patients.