Abstract
Objective: HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to be a public health problem in developing countries. This study aimed to assess the correlation of recovery responses and baseline CD4 T cells’ level in HIV/AIDS adult patients after initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Vietnam.
 Methods: The study was a clinic-based longitudinal study done at an outpatient clinic, Tropical Diseases Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from 10/2018 to 8/2019.
 Results: Ninety-three patients were provided informed consent to participate in this study. Overall, the mean of CD4 T cell counts was 161.7 cells/μl. In AIDS patients groups, at the baseline mean of T CD4 cell was 65 cells/μl and in the non-AIDS group was 315 cells/μl. The slope of the plotted overall CD4 cell counts increased significantly in both two groups and the steepest increases in the first 3 months. After 6 months, patients who were AIDS stages were had a higher viral load in plasma than others, with p<0.005. The changes in CD4 T cell counts were significantly associated with age and occupational status.
 Conclusion: The present study found that immunological responses of patients with first-line ART were not related to baseline CD4 T cells’ level. However, low baseline CD4 counts were associated with poor virologic suppression.
Highlights
HIV/AIDS pandemic is still a serious public health problem in developing countries with a high incidence and high mortality rate [1]
With the appearance of effective antiretroviral therapy (ART), nowadays, HIV infected patients could prolong their lives with the ART which is effective in improving the amount of CD4 T cells [2]
A total of 93 patients were provided informed consent to participate in this study
Summary
HIV/AIDS pandemic is still a serious public health problem in developing countries with a high incidence and high mortality rate [1]. T lymphocyte level remains the foremost important and most typically used marker for monitoring of the immune status of HIV infected individuals. It is used for staging the disease and provision of additional essential information for the clinical management of HIV infected patients [24]. Some studies have shown that recovery response is strongly related to baseline CD4 count [5,6]. Many researches have shown that patients with lower baseline CD4 are recovery worse [7,8,9]. While some studies have shown that there is no major difference in recovery response between the AIDS and non-AIDS groups [10]
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