Current practices in laboratory monitoring of HIV infection

Abstract

After a diagnosis of HIV infection is made, the patient needs to be monitored using both clinical assessment and laboratory markers. HIV/AIDS monitoring is essential in guiding when to recommend initiation of therapy. Clinical monitoring will include staging of the HIV/AIDS disease using either the presence or absence of HIV-related signs and symptoms using the WHO staging system. Various laboratory methods can be used to monitor the disease progression and to guide whether the patient will need antiretroviral therapy or not. Laboratory monitoring for patients who are not on drugs is done to provide information about the stage of illness; to enable the clinician to make decisions on treatment and to give information on prognosis of the patient. Patients on drugs are monitored to assess their response to treatment with antiretroviral drugs and to detect any possible toxicity and improvement associated with the antiretroviral drugs.

A Study of Alternate Biomarkers in HIV Disease and Evaluating their Efficacy in Predicting T CD4+ Cell Counts and Disease Progression in Resource Poor Settings in Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) Era

“…Only scanty data on the usefulness of ESR in predicting CD4 cell counts was found to be available on reviewing the literature [15,17,18]. Doing several studies on the utility of alternate biological markers in HIV could pave the way for a better understanding of immunopathogenesis of HIV disease and for improving laboratory testing strategies that can be used in predicting clinical stage, initiation of HAART and management of HIV disease [4]. Current study's results correlated well with those of a recent study, which found anaemia to be a useful predictor of CD4 cell counts of < 200 cells/mm 3 [19].…”

“…The number of people which contract new infections has been on decline globally and those who have access to HAART are increasing in number. Antiretroviral therapy was made available in India since April 2004 and currently, over three lakh people are on HAART [4]. The cause of concern now is the availability and efficacy of costeffective disease monitoring strategies.…”

Large Unstained Cells: A Potentially Valuable Parameter in the Assessment of Immune Activation Levels in HIV Infection

“…Several serum markers of inflammation or immune stimulation in HIV infection such as interleukin-2 and interleukin-6, β 2 -microglobulin, and C-reactive protein have been identified, in addition to the well-established cellular marker of immune activation, CD38 expression on CD8+ T cells (%CD38onCD8) [6,8,9,11,12,13]. %CD38onCD8 has been shown to be an important prognostic marker of HIV disease progression, independent of immunodeficiency and the viral burden [1,2,7,8,13].…”

“…One such test is a full blood count, often performed with a differential count. These are done to assess for cytopenias and cytoses, secondary to HIV disease progression, opportunistic infections, or drug-related effects [11,14,15]. On certain hematology analyzers (i.e.…”

The Immunostimulatory and Antimicrobial Property of two Herbal Decoctions used in the Management of Hiv/Aids in Ghana

“…In HIV/AIDS patients, the viral load keeps on increasing as the immune system is compromised. Viral load measurements are used to determine the risk of disease progression, to monitor response to treatment, to detect viral breakthrough as a marker of regimen failure, and to decide when to initiate antiretroviral therapy (Vajpayee and Mohan, 2011). If the viral load measurement is high, it indicates that HIV is reproducing and that the disease will likely progress faster (Tlakula, 2011).…”