A clinicopathological study of peripheral lymph nodes in HIV‐infected patients with special reference to CD4+ T‐cell counts: Experience from a tertiary care institution in Darjeeling (India)

Abstract

Lymph node cytology in HIV-infected patients is essential to identify opportunistic infections from neoplastic lesions and; to enable therapeutic strategies. Correlation of lesions with mean CD4+ T-cell count predicts personal immunity, stage of disease and disease activity. Furthermore, enlarged lymph node numbers and ALC can be surrogate markers of CD4+ T-cell count for monitoring the severity of the immune suppression in under-resourced countries like India.

Significance of lymph node fine needle aspiration for the diagnosis of HIV-associated lymphoma in a low-resource setting

“…It is readily available and serves as an important screening tool for PWH. Whenever combined with upfront GeneXpert and mycobacterial culture testing, a diagnosis of TB was confirmed in half of PWH undergoing a lymph node FNA and is similar to prior reports [2,[4][5][6].…”

“…In low-resource settings, fine needle aspiration (FNA) is an important tool to determine the cause of suspicious lymphadenopathy [1][2][3]. Previous reports highlight the utility of this procedure in high HIV and tuberculosis (TB) burden regions [4][5][6]. In this setting, TB is the primary diagnosis in people with HIV (PWH) [2,[4][5][6] and the diagnostic yield of the FNA procedure is enhanced by the incorporation of GeneXpert molecular testing for TB [7,8].…”

“…Previous reports highlight the utility of this procedure in high HIV and tuberculosis (TB) burden regions [4][5][6]. In this setting, TB is the primary diagnosis in people with HIV (PWH) [2,[4][5][6] and the diagnostic yield of the FNA procedure is enhanced by the incorporation of GeneXpert molecular testing for TB [7,8]. Apart from diagnosing TB and reactive adenopathy, FNA is an important first step in the work-up of lymphoma in low-resource settings.…”