correlation between total lymphocyte count, hemoglobin, hematocrit and cd4 count in hiv/aids patients

lymphocyte cd4 + count, a standard laboratory test for staging of hiv infection, is expensive and unavailable in resource-restricted countries. total lymphocyte count (tlc) and hemoglobin (hb) are recommended as simple & inexpensive surrogates. the aim of this study was to assess the correlation, sensitivity and predictive power of these parameters as substitutes for cd 4 count. one hundred hiv patients enrolled in this analytic descriptive study in ahvaz, a city in the south of iran, from 2005 to 2006. they were tested for cd 4 count, tlc, hb, and hematocrit (hct). the cutoffs were determined as: 200 cells/µl, 1200 cells/µl, 12 g/dl and 30%, respectively. we used sys max se 9500 for cbc and flow cytometry for cd4 count. the correlation coefficient established correlation between values. sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive values were calculated. 2 females (%2) and 98 males (%98) of the mean age of 32±5 years were studied. 87 cases (%87) were iv drug users, the majority having a history of imprisonment. the mean cd4 count, tlc, hb and hct were 279±225, 2102±1250, 10.7±2.4 and 30.4±9.0, respectively. a strong correlation was observed between cd4 count and tlc ( r = 0.645, p = 0.001), but no correlation was seen between cd4 count and hb or hct ( r = 0.451, p =0.056 and r = 0.375, p =0.816 respectively). this study shows that tlc is a suitable surrogate marker for cd 4 count. hb and hct are of limited value in predicting cd4 counts and should not be substituted for cd4counts.