Are CD4-Cell Counts Still Necessary?

In stable HIV-infected patients, results contributed virtually nothing to medical decision making.

The CD4-cell count has been a pivotal tool in HIV care since the late 1980s, when it first achieved its reputation as a reliable and convenient objective marker of immune deficiency. And now, hard as it may be to believe, we may not need it any more — at least not in the care of stable patients.

To explore this possibility, investigators probed the records of all patients attending a single HIV clinic in Washington, D.C., at any time from September 1998 through December 2011 to identify those with continuous long-term HIV suppression. Among patients with CD4 counts between 200 and 249 cells/mm³ at the start of suppression, risk for a subsequent CD4 dip to <200 cells/mm³ was 25%; among those with counts between 250 and 299, risk was 16%; amon…

Reviewing Author

Abigail Zuger, MD

Disclosures

Nothing to disclose

Abigail Zuger, MD

Disclosures

Nothing to disclose

Are CD4-Cell Counts Still Necessary?

Topics

Reviewing Author