BACKGROUND The enumeration of absolute CD4 counts is of primary importance, since therapeutic protocols for HIV1 patients are based on these. AIMS To establish reference ranges for the CD4 and CD8 T-lymphocytes in the Indian population. SETTINGS AND DESIGN Enumeration of absolute numbers and percentages of lymphocyte subsets was performed in 252 healthy adult Indians. METHODS AND MATERIAL...

PURPOSE The aim of this article is to evaluate the use of nevirapine HIV-infected pregnant women in our service. METHODS a retrospective study was performed between January 2003 and December 2006 analysing all women prescribed nevirapine in pregnancy. Exclusion criteria included: (1) women who started nevirapine before pregnancy, (2) patients with abnormal baseline liver enzymes, and (3) wome...

INTRODUCTION In developing countries the standard methods used to monitor HIV disease progression and therapy response are clinical assessment, CD4+ T lymphocyte count measurement, and plasma viral load (PVL) quantification. These tests require expensive equipment and skilled technicians, so monitoring HIV in resource-limited countries remains challenging as few laboratories can offer these tes...

OBJECTIVE To determine the effectiveness and costs of prophylaxis for disseminated Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infection in patients with AIDS. DESIGN A decision analysis model was constructed to compare rifabutin (300 mg/day), azithromycin (1200 mg/week), and clarithromycin (500 mg twice per day) with no prophylaxis. Sensitivity analysis was done on all model parameters, including init...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Levels of tumour necrosis factor (TNF) are increased in patients with HIV infection leading to increased apoptosis and reduced CD4 cell life. Pentoxiphylline is a TNF inhibitor with properties that might make it useful for the treatment of HIV infection. These include improved cell mediated immunity and inhibition of viral replication. We carried out this study to determ...

CD4⁺ T-lymphocyte destruction, microbial translocation, and systemic immune activation are the main mechanisms of the pathogenesis of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV) infection. To investigate the impact of HIV infection and antiretroviral therapy (ART) on the immune profile of and microbial translocation in HIV-infected children, 60 HIV vertically infected children (31 without ART: HI...

The emergence of CXCR4-using HIV variants (X4-HIV) is associated with accelerated disease progression in the absence of antiretroviral therapy. However, the effect of X4-HIV variants on the treatment response remains unclear. Here we determined whether the presence of X4-HIV variants influenced the time to undetectable viral load and CD4+ T cell reconstitution after initiation of cART in 732 pa...

BACKGROUND Data regarding CD4+ recovery after switching from protease inhibitor (PI)-based regimens to regimens not containing PI are scarce. METHODS Subjects with virological success on first-PI-regimens who switched to NNRTI therapy (NNRTI group) or to nucleoside reverse transcriptase (NRTI)-only (NRTI group) were studied. The effect of the switch on the ongoing CD4+ trend was assessed by t...

Some HIV-infected c-ART-suppressed individuals show incomplete CD4+ T-cell recovery, abnormal T-cell activation and higher mortality. One potential source of immune activation could be coinfection with cytomegalovirus (CMV). IgG and IgM levels, immune activation, inflammation and T-cell death in c-ART-suppressed individuals with CD4+ T-cell counts >350 cells/μL (immunoconcordant, n = 133) or <3...

BACKGROUND We compared clinical outcomes among HIV-infected participants receiving ART who were randomized to viral load (VL) and CD4 cell count monitoring in comparison to CD4 cell count monitoring alone in Tororo, Uganda. METHODS Beginning in May 2003, participants with CD4 cell counts <250 cells/μL or WHO stage 3 or 4 disease were randomized to clinical monitoring alone, clinical monitorin...