Analysis of adenosine deaminase (ADA) Activity in HIV-positive individuals

• Author Details:   
• Komal Waman Meshram
• Arun Krishnarao Tadas
• Poonam Lalla ^*

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Background & Objectives: Depletion of CD4+ T-lymphocytes is a hallmark of HIV infection. Therefore, CD4+ cell count is routinely done to monitor the progression of HIV infection. CD4+ cell count being costly could not be afforded everywhere in low-income countries. Thus, we aimed to ascertain the usefulness of serum levels of ADA in screening and monitoring HIV-infected patients as a simple, rapid, and inexpensive marker as compared to routinely used CD4+ cell count.
Materials and Methods: This observational analytical case-control study was performed on 150 HIV-positive patients and 50 healthy subjects. Their CD4+ cell count and Serum ADA activity were determined on Erba XL640 an automated Biochemistry analyzer. Results: were presented as Mean ± SD. Data was analyzed using SPSS-16 software.
Results: Serum ADA activity was significantly higher in HIV-positive patients than in healthy subjects (p<0>
Conclusions: Serum ADA activity could be considered as an alternate laboratory tool for screening and monitoring the disease progression & therapeutic outcome in HIV-infected patients as compared to routinely used CD4 cell count.

Keywords: Adenosine deaminase, Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, Cluster differentiation, Diagnostic value, Human immunodeficiency virus, Sensitivity, Specificity