A Study on the Effect of Age, Sex and Baseline CD4T-Iymphocyte Cout on CD4 Cell Count Recovery in HIV Positive Patients received HAART

Context:Initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in humanimmunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive patients results in an improvement in their immunological function. Aim: In the present study, we investigate the factors influencing CD4 cell count recovery following initiation of HAART in newly diagnosed HIV positive patients. Material and Methods: In this cross sectional analysis, 104 newly diagnosed HIV infected adults started on antiretroviral therapy were included and the outcome 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 with baseline CD4 count ?100 cells/μl (p value <0.001). Though the mean CD4 improvement was also higher in patients <45 years of age, the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.14). The mean CD4 increase was similar in both males and females. Conclusion: Poor immune reconstitution following initiation of HAART seems frequent in individuals with low baseline CD4 counts and in elderly patients.