[The clinical significance of changes in CD4+ T cell counts by peripheral blood from patients with pulmonary tuberculosis after antitubercular treatment].

ABSTRACT

AIM: To explore the clinical significance of changes in CD4+ T cell counts by peripheral blood from patients with pulmonary tuberculosis after antitubercular treatment. METHODS: CD4+ T cell counts in the peripheral blood of 62 pulmonary TB patients were counted by flow cytometry from groups auording to the radiologic extent of disease, and compared with those obtained from 30 controls. RESULTS: (1) The baseline levels of CD4+ T cell counts (439.21+/-210.56)/mm3 in pulmonary tuberculosis group before antituberculosis therapy were significantly lower than those (748.47+/-261.85)/mm3 in the control group (P<0.01). (2) The baseline levels of CD4+ T cell counts (399.83+/-194.17)/mm3 before antituberculosis therapy in diffuse group were significantly lower than those (521.90+/-224.40)/mm3 in limited group (P<0.05). (3) After two months of antituberculosis therapy, the levels of CD4+ T cell counts in the improved group increased from (480.75+/-228.49)/mm3 to (616.75+/-280.57)/mm3, and the values were not significantly different from those in controls (P>0.05). Whereas, the levels of CD4+ T cell counts in the stable group increased from (412.97+/-197.00)/mm3 to (447.55+/-204.60)/mm3, which were still significantly lower than those in the control group (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: These results suggested that peripheral CD4+ lymphopenia was demonstrated in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, and such lymphopenia was reversible partly with antitubercular treatment. The numbers of peripheral CD4+ T cell counts were related to the severity of the disease, the more severe of the disease was, the less numbers of the CD4+ T cell counts were.