In this week's PLoS Medicine, Luis Montaner from the Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, USA and colleagues retrospectively apply a potential capacity-saving CD4 count model to a cohort of HIV-infected patients on antiretroviral therapy. The study's findings suggest that the model could be used to optimize laboratory capacity in settings where resources are limited. The authors stress that the method is not intended to replace CD4 count testing or establish a second tier of healthcare, rather the model is intended as a triage tool to prioritize laboratory capacity for patients who are a high priority.
The authors state: "the implementation of our method could help focus laboratory-based CD4 count testing capacity on patients with higher likelihood of CD4 failure. This work provides the basis for future prospective testing of the model's overall safety, cost effectiveness and clinical outcomes in low-resource settings."
Source: Public Library of Science