Comparison of capillary based microflurometric assay for CD4+ T cell count estimation with dual platform Flow cytometry

Abstract

Abstract The CD4+ T cell count estimation is an important monitoring tool for HIV disease progression and efficacy of anti-retroviral treatment (ART). Due to availability of ART at low cost in developing countries, quest for reliable cost effective alternative methods for CD4+ T cell count estimation has gained importance. A simple capillary-based microflurometric assay (EasyCD4 System, Guava Technology) was compared with the conventional flow cytometric assay for estimation of CD4+ T cell counts in 79 HIV infected individuals. CD4+ T cell count estimation by both the assays showed strong correlation (r = 0.938, p 3). The Easy CD4 assay showed 100% sensitivity for estimating the CD4+ T cell counts 3 and 3 and 97% sensitivity to estimate CD4+ T cell count 3. The specificity ranged from 82 to 100%. The Kappa factor ranged from 0.735 for the CD4+ T cell counts 3 to 0.771 for 3 CD4+ T cell counts. The system works with a simple protocol, is easy to maintain and has low running cost. The system is compact and generates minimum amount of waste. Hence the EasyCD4 System could be applied for estimation of CD4+ T cell counts in resource poor settings.