Effect of haart on some haematological parameters,correlations between total lymphocyte and cd4 counts of hiv clients attending ssh, ikole-ekiti

Abstract

Several authors have reported anaemia, neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, eosinophilia etc. as the adverse effects of ARD especially when used as mono-therapy.In this study, the effect of HAART on some haematological parameters and, correlation between total lymphocyte count and CD4 cells count was carried out on eighty patients accessing care in State Specialist Hospital, Ikole Ekiti, Ekiti State. The results obtained in this study show a positive relationship between haematocrit(HCT), haemoglobin(HGB) and Total Lymphocyte Count(TLC) with CD4 count in the course of receiving HAART.Statistically significant difference was observed in CD4 count, 137.72 18.66,lymphocytes 32.22 2.03,Neutrophil 60.19 2.25, HCT 30.38 0.74 and TLC 1466.41 107.97 at baseline when compared to the values at 3 months; CD4 count 313.53 35.16, lymphocyte 44.31 2.17, Neutrophil 48.91 2.21,HCT 32.5 0.70 and TLC 1999.31 120.69 (P< 0.05 ).When values at 3 and 6 months were compared, the diference was not statistically significant (P> 0.05). Also, statistically significant diference (increase) was seen in CD4 count 343.94 36.81, lymphocytes 44.28 1.74, HCT 32.94 0.60 and TLC 1993.12 127.52 at 6 months when compared with the baseline; while statistically significant diference (reduction) was observed inNeutrophil 49.69 1.65 and monocytes 3.97 0.26, when compared with the Neutrophil 60.19 2.25 and monocytes 4.84 0.34 at baseline (P< 0.05). No statistically significant diference was observed in the other parameters (P> 0.05).Our findings indicate that HAART results in improved haematologic values of HIV patients. In addition to the use of TLC for initiating HAART, as proposed by WHO guidelines, it can also be used as an inexpensive surrogate for monitoring the immunological response to HAART in resource-limited settings as significant correlation was observed in the TLC and CD4 counts at all points of the investigations. Significant correlation (r, 0.632, P< 0.01) was observed at the baseline, (r, 0.730, P< 0.01) at 3 months, (r, 0.697, P< 0.01) at 6 months and, (r, 0.729, P< 0.01) for all test groups