European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Background: Tuberculosis is among the most common opportunistic infections in people living with HIV/AIDS and is also the most common cause of peripheral lymphadenopathy. These lymph nodes revealed four different patterns on FNAC, which indirectly reflected the immune status in these people. CD4 counts, being a primary marker for immunological status in HIV people, were used to initiate ART, monitoring disease progression and management. The present study was aimed to correlate these four cytomorphological patterns with CD4 counts.
Results: In the present study we observed that CD4 counts varied significantly with different cytological patterns. Pattern 1, having a lower CD4 counts, reflects a poor immune response, whilst pattern 4, having higher CD4 counts reflected a better immune response.
Conclusion: FNAC patterns can be used to predict the CD4 counts where flow cytometry facilities for CD4 count estimation may not be available.