Proposed CD4+T-Cell Criteria for Staging Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected Chinese Adults

Maturational Changes in Peripheral Lymphocyte Subsets Pertinent to Monitoring Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected Chinese Pediatric Patients

“…A study in Europe detailed the changes in the percentages and absolute counts of CD4 and CD8 cells in the first 4 years of life (14). Our previous study showed that both CD4 ϩ -cell percentages and absolute counts are substantially lower and that NK-cell percentages and absolute counts are higher in our indigenous Chinese HIV-non-infected as well as HIVinfected populations (17,18).…”

“…In particular, as the HIV infection and AIDS epidemic establishes itself in Asia, it would be most relevant to extend the study to the HIV-infected pediatric population to see how HIV affects the different lymphocyte subsets, as has already been done for the Chinese adult population (18). Also, as seen from our findings in the present study, it would be prudent to establish normative ranges for HIV-infected pediatric subjects separately from those for HIV-infected adults.…”

“…These recommendations have been based on previous studies of the normal maturational process in infancy and childhood (1,11,13,18,33,34) and studies of the uninfected as well as the infected babies of HIV-infected mothers (3,16,19,22,25). In the present study, we examined the maturational changes in peripheral circulating lymphocyte subsets that occurred in a Chinese pediatric population with the specific purpose of monitoring the progression of HIV disease.…”

“…Data acquisition was performed on configured FACScan flow cytometers. Appropriate quality control procedures were done as described previously (17,18). Absolute cell counts (numbers of cells per microliter) were obtained by multiplication of the percent-age of lymphocytes by the leukocyte differential obtained from the simultaneous blood sample analyzed with an automated hematological instrument (Coulter MAXM; Coulter Corp., Miami, Fla.).…”

“…Subsequently, we proposed a separate staging system based on peripheral CD4 cells which can be used to monitor HIV-infected adult Chinese individuals and assessed the potential impact that this may have on the use of ART and PCPP in our HIV-infected population (18).…”