Cd4 count at the time of presentation in newly diagnosed HIV patients in a tertiary care hospital in south India: implications for the programme

Background: Lower CD4 count at initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) can have a significant negative impact on subsequent disease progression and mortality among HIV patients. Hence, author assessed the status of the CD4 count at the time of diagnosis and factors associated with lower CD4 count among newly diagnosed HIV cases.Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted in a single integrated counseling and testing center, affiliated with a Medical College and Hospital, Andhra Pradesh. All newly diagnosed HIV cases in the setting between January to December 2017 were included. The CD4 count was assessed as per national guidelines for enumeration of CD4 2015.Results: The final analysis included 125 participants. The mean CD4 count at diagnosis was 276.51±228.37. Only 19 (15.20%) people had CD4 count >500, 47 (37.60%) had between 200-500 and 59 (47.20%) had CD4 count <200. Only 20% had appropriate knowledge of treatment. Among the study population, 43 (34.70%) had symptomatic conditions attributed to HIV infection, 44 (35.50%) participants had an AIDS-defining illness at the time of diagnosis. Only 3 (2.40%) had voluntary counseling and testing. Even though male gender, poor educational status, having more sexual partners, poor knowledge related to HIV diagnosis and treatment was associated with higher odds of low CD4 count (<200), none of the associations were statistically significant.Conclusions: The mean CD4 count was low and almost half of newly diagnosed cases had low CD4 count (<200) at the time of diagnosis. There is a strong need to intensify the efforts to fill the gaps in the screening for the early diagnosis to maximize the benefits of HAART and to stop the spread of the infection

PD-L1 expression and its significance in advanced NSCLC: real-world experience from a tertiary care center

Abstract Background Targeted therapies against programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have revolutionized the management in recent years. There is paucity of data on the significance of PD-L1 expression in NSCLC from India. We aimed to study the prevalence of PD-L1 expression and its relation with different clinico-pathological parameters in advanced NSCLC from a tertiary care center in Eastern India. Methods All consecutive patients with advanced NSCLC diagnosed from January 2020 to December 2021 were prospectively evaluated for PD-L1 expression in formalin fixed-paraffin embedded tumor tissue specimens using immunohistochemistry analysis. A PD-L1 expression of < 1%, 1–49%, and ≥ 50% were considered negative, low, and high expression positive respectively, and association with various parameters was performed. Results Out of the 94 patients (mean age 59.6 ± 14 years and 63.8% males), PD-L1 positivity was seen in 42 (44.7%) patients, with low positivity (1–49%) in 29 patients and high positivity (≥ 50%) in 13 patients. Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) mutations were seen in 28 patients (29.8%). There were no significant differences in PD-L1 positivity with respect to gender, age, and molecular mutation status. PD-L1 positivity was significantly associated with tobacco use (p = 0.04), advanced tumor stage (p < 0.001), and higher nodal stage (p < 0.001). Median overall survival in the cohort was 17 months and it was not significantly different between the PD-L1 positive and negative groups. Conclusions Forty-five percent of advanced NSCLC patients in our cohort showed positive PD-L1 expression and it is associated with tobacco use and aggressive tumor characteristics