cd4/cd8 ratio. Need help!

[roji_t]

Hi, I have a query regarding cd4/cd8 ratio.

A friend and his wife are infected with HIV. I believe for more than 3 years now. They started antiretroviral therapy last year.

In the recent blood test report the following came up:

The cd4 count of both of them is around 300
The cd4/cd8 Ratio is around 0.10

Now I understand that cd4 is the real indicator. But what about cd8? The actual counts of cd8 are almost three times the maximum permissible level for both of them.

Can anyone give me some idea regarding the significance of cd4/cd8 and cd8 in itself? Does a high cd8 value indicate the progression of the disease in itself?

UPDATE: Till now they have had the test done 3 times with a gap of around 6 months.
The cd4/cd8 ratio has reduced during each test by around 0.6
The cd8 count has gone up in each test by around 200 counts.
The cd4 count has dropped by around 20.
The cd4 lyphocyte percentage has also dropped by around 2% in each test.

The current cd4 lyphocyte percentages are 7% for the female and 12% for the male.
cd4 count: 300
cd8 count: around 3000!

Any help on the same is greatly appreciated!
Cheers!

[newt]

CD4/CD8 ratio is often abnormal in people with HIV and no-one can tell you if it is important to health outcomes or what to do about it.

- matt

[daviator]

It's accurate to say that CD4/CD8 ratio is often, nearly always, abnormal in people with HIV infection.  Normally the ratio is inverted from what is typical for an uninfected person.  In other words, an uninfected person will have more CD4s than CD8s, while someone infected with HIV will have more CD8s than CD4s.  That results in the inverted ratio.

So when it comes to that ratio, higher is better.  .10 is a pretty low ratio, and can indicate that the HIV infection is very recent, or that the HIV infection is pretty advanced.  Usually, over time, and with a successful antiretroviral regimen, the ratio will slowly increase.

Here's a posting that explains some of this better than I can:  http://www.thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Switching/Q142217.html

CD4/CD8 ratio by itself doesn't indicate treatment success or failure; viral load is a better indication of that.  If the viral load is undetectable then I think it will just take time for the ratio to recover.  However, if the viral load is still significant and the ratio is dropping, that probably indicates an unsuccessful med regimen (or poor compliance with taking the meds as prescribed) which should be addressed.

I'm not a health professional, just someone who has dealt with this stuff in my own life for 30+ years.

[Ann]

roji, I deleted the duplicate threads you created in various sub-forums. Posting the same thread/post in more than one forum is considered spamming and it's not appreciated. When you post the same thing multiple times, it becomes difficult to follow. It's much easier to have all the replies in one place.

Otherwise, welcome to the forums.

When a person is on hiv therapy, the most important number is the viral load, providing the CD4 count is over the 200 threshold. As long as the CD4s are over 200 and the VL is undetectable, don't worry about the CD4s or CD4/CD8 ratios.



By the way, unless you are also hiv positive yourself, you really should only be posting in the Am I Infected, Someone I Care About and/or Off Topic forums.

Ann