Predictions of CD4 lymphocytes' count in HIV patients from complete blood count.

BACKGROUND: HIV diagnosis, prognostic and treatment requires T CD4 lymphocytes' number from flow cytometry, an expensive technique often not available to people in developing countries. The aim of this work is to apply a previous developed methodology that predicts T CD4 lymphocytes' value based on total white blood cell (WBC) count and lymphocytes count applying sets theory, from information taken from the Complete Blood Count (CBC). METHODS: Sets theory was used to classify into groups named A, B, C and D the number of leucocytes/mm3, lymphocytes/mm3, and CD4/µL3 subpopulation per flow cytometry of 800 HIV diagnosed patients. Union between sets A and C, and B and D were assessed, and intersection between both unions was described in order to establish the belonging percentage to these sets. Results were classified into eight ranges taken by 1000 leucocytes/mm3, calculating the belonging percentage of each range with respect to the whole sample. RESULTS: Intersection (A ∪ C) ∩ (B ∪ D) showed an effectiveness in the prediction of 81.44% for the range between 4000 and 4999 leukocytes, 91.89% for the range between 3000 and 3999, and 100% for the range below 3000. CONCLUSIONS: Usefulness and clinical applicability of a methodology based on sets theory were confirmed to predict the T CD4 lymphocytes' value, beginning with WBC and lymphocytes' count from CBC. This methodology is new, objective, and has lower costs than the flow cytometry which is currently considered as Gold Standard.

Diagnóstico fractal de disfunción cardéaca severa: Dinámica fractal de la ramificación coronaria izquierda / Fractal diagnosis of severe cardiac dysfunction: Fractal dynamic of the left coronary branching

INTRODUCCIÓN Y OBJETIVOS: la geometría fractal evalúa la irregularidad de los objetos naturales, permitiendo caracterizar de forma imparcial la totalidad de la ramificación coronaria izquierda a diferencia de la metodología actual que evalúa únicamente partes de ésta. Con base en esta medida se generalizó una nueva metodología diagnóstica para detectar cualquier tipo de disfunción cardiaca severa. MÉTODOS: estudio de concordancia diagnóstica en el que se utilizó el método de box counting para medir dimensiones fractales de imágenes consecutivas entre sístole y diástole de la ramificación coronaria izquierda en proyección oblicua derecha anterior de angiografías de ocho pacientes con enfermedad arterial oclusiva leve. Así mismo, se evaluaron sus cambios por medio de los conceptos de variabilidad y diferencia neta y se compararon estos resultados con pacientes sin enfermedad arterial oclusiva, con enfermedad arterial oclusiva moderada y severa evaluados previamente de igual forma, para obtener una metodología matemática que evalúa el impacto de cualquier patología en la dinámica cardiaca. RESULTADOS: los casos que presentan diferencias netas de cero corresponden a pacientes con disfunciones cardiacas severas, independientemente del grado o ausencia de enfermedad arterial oclusiva diagnosticada. CONCLUSIONES: se generalizó una nueva metodología diagnóstica de aplicación clínica que detecta disfunciones cardiacas severas sub-diagnosticadas con las metodologías actuales, mediante la caracterización de la dinámica total de la ramificación coronaria izquierda.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJETIVES: fractal geometry evaluates the irregularity of natural objects, allowing impartially characterize the entire left coronary branching unlike the current methodology which evaluates only parts of it. Based on this measure, a new diagnostic method was generalized to detect any type of severe cardiac dysfunction. METHODS: Concordance study using the box counting method to measure fractal dimensions of consecutive images between systole and diastole of the left coronary branch in right anterior oblique projection in angiograms of eight patients with mild arterial occlusive disease. Likewise, we evaluated its changes through the concepts of variability and net difference and compared these results with patients without occlusive arterial disease, with moderate to severe arterial occlusive disease previously and similarly evaluated, to obtain a mathematical methodology to assess the impact of any pathology in cardiac dynamics. RESULTS: The cases with zero net differences occur in patients with severe cardiac dysfunction, regardless of the degree or absence of diagnosed occlusive arterial disease. Conclusions: a new diagnostic methodology of clinical application to detect sub-diagnosed severe heart dysfunction was generalized with current methodologies, through the characterization of the total dynamics of the left coronary branch.