Study of Reversible CD4/CD8+ve T Cell Counts in Patients with HIV Negative Pulmonary Tuberculosis after Effective Treatment with Antitubercular Therapy (ATT)

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Background/Purpose: Tuberculosis (T.B) an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis is still one of the biggest killers among the infectious diseases. Immunological deficiencies of various magnitudes have been reported in TB which include CD4 + T and CD8 + T cells. The aim of the study was investigating the at the occurrence of CD4+ T cell lymphopenia in patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis and the response of this abnormality to ATT in HIV negative patients. Methods: The study subjects included three groups in which 30 patients were with sputum positive pulmonary tuberculosis without any evidence of HIV infection and second group of10 healthy controls. Third group included10 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis co-infected HIV sero-positivity. Zeil Nelson (ZN) method was used to diagnose pulmonary tuberculosis, ELISA method was adopted to confirm the HIV status and CD4 and CD8 count was done by flow cytometry. Results: The CD­4 + T cell lymphopenia was observed significantly associated (p=0.000) in Non-HIV pulmonary tuberculosis cases as compared to controls (370.87 ± 209.00 cells/μl v/s 673.60 ± 120.30 cells/μl).CD4 + T cell lymphopenia was significantin HIV positive pulmonary TB patients compared to healthy controls (p=0.000). CD4 + T cell lymphopenia was more severe in HIV co-infected pulmonary tuberculosis patients compared to Non-HIV pulmonary TB cases (p=0.029). Conclusion: We conclude that the pulmonary tuberculosis is an important cause of non HIV CD4, CD8 lymphopenia, with reversal of CD4/CD8 ratio, and this is reversible with effective treatment with antitubercular therapy (ATT).