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The Primary Deficiency Resulting From Acute Severe Illness in Nonimmunocompromised Patients Is Not the CD4+ Subtype, but the Total Number of Lymphocytes
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| Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings. |
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In their interesting article, Aldrich et al1
reported the CD4+ lymphocyte counts of 53 patients admitted to
an intensive care unit for diverse infectious and noninfectious conditions
and who tested negative for human immunodeficiency virus. The authors found
a high rate of absolute CD4+ lymphopenia among these patients,
whereas the percentage of these cells and the CD4/CD8 ratio was normal in
most of them. As noted by the authors, the fact that the relative counts of
CD4+ lymphocytes were normal in most of these patients and the
absolute counts were low suggests that the key point is not CD4+
lymphopenia but panlymphopenia. However, the authors did not analyze or report
the total lymphocyte counts.
We have studied the baseline lymphocyte subsets in a group of patients
with tuberculosis as well as the course of these subsets during treatment.2 Our patients were in relatively early stages of
infection, as suggested by . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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