Summary:
Objective: Aims at recognizing the haematological
abnormalities in peripheral blood associated with HIV
infection and to correlate the haematological abnormalities
with CD4 cell count to highlight these manifestations with
disease progression.
Methodology: Observational cross sectional study.
Setting: Department of Haematology, Armed Forces
Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Dhaka cantonment.
Patients: Two hundred four (204) HIV – infected patients
receiving antiretroviral therapy aged from three years to 65
years. There were 132 male and 72 female patients.
Results: Anaemia was found in 103 (50.5%) cases.
Leucopenia and thrombocytopenia were observed in ten
(4.9%) and seven (3.4%) cases respectively. Lymphopenia
was found in 12 (5.9%) cases. In 50 (24.5%) cases
Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR) was > 20 mm at the
end of 1st hour. Flow cytometric analysis for CD4 cell count
showed < 200 cells/cmm in 65 (31.8%) cases, in between
200 cells/cmm and 499 cells/cmm in 117 (57.4%) cases and
> 500 cells/cmm in 22 (10.8%) cases.
Conclusion: Haematological abnormalities are common in
HIV – infected patients and responsible for significant
morbidity and mortality in these patients. These
abnormalities are more frequent with disease progression.
The present study revealed a significant increase in the
number of anaemia, leucopenia, lymphopenia and
thrombocytopenia with decreasing CD4 cell count.
Keywords: CD4 cell count, Haematological abnormalities,
HIV, Peripheral blood.
(J Banagladesh Coll Phys Surg 2014; 32: 130-136)