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HIV infection: oral lesions, CD4 + cell count and viral load in an ltalian study population
Author(s) -
Margiotta V.,
Campisi G.,
Mancuso S.,
Accurso V.,
Abbadessa V.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of oral pathology and medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.887
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1600-0714
pISSN - 0904-2512
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0714.1999.tb02019.x
Subject(s) - viral load , population , viral disease , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , medicine , immunology , virology , environmental health
The aims of this study were to assess types and prevalence of HIV‐related oral lesions and to correlate these lesions to the main laboratory parameters such as CD4 + cell count and plasma HIV‐RNA. The study population consisted of 104 consecutive HIV + patients living in Sicily (M=67, 64.4%; F=37, 35.6%; median age=35 years). CD4 + cell count and viral load were measured within 24 h of oral examinations. Data were managed and analysed by Epi‐Info 6.0. HIV‐related oral lesions, as classified by the EC‐Clearinghouse, were diagnosed in 35.6% of patients: these were of the Strongly Associated (SA) type in 22.1%, the Less Common Associated (LCA) type in 12.5%, and the Lesions Seen in HIV Infection (LS) type in 3.8%. CD4 + cell counts <200x10 6 /I were significantly associated only with SA lesions (P=0.03); median values of CD4 + cell count were also significantly correlated (P=0.02). Viral load, expressed both by median values of copies/ml (P=0.0001) and log 10 copies/ml (P=0.0003), was significanly associated only with SA lesions. Treatment failure was significantly correlated to SA lesions (P=0.04). Besides the confirmed correlation with CD4 depletion, the strong association with a high level of viral load could make SA oral lesions a useful tool for identifying progression of HIV infection and could be of value in monitoring antiretroviral therapy.