ABSTRACT

We aimed to establish the features of the course of HIV in association with active tuberculosis in the presence of other secondary diseases and opportunistic infections.

In this research, 155 HIV patients with active newly diagnosed tuberculosis and 76 diagnosed only with tuberculosis have been comprehensively immunologically examined. The HIV/Tuberculosis group was divided into 3 subgroups depending on the time of adherence of Tuberculosis to HIV infection. STATISTICA 6.0 was used for data analysis, and when the number of observations is less than 20, the Wilcoxon nonparametric method for independent populations or the dispersive analysis of Kruskal-Wallis was used. In addition, Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare two independent groups.

The number of CD4 + T-lymphocytes was lower compared with patients without secondary ailments. However, the level of serum concentration and spontaneous production of IL-4 and IFN-γ, as well as VL HIV was higher in the presence of other secondary diseases.

In the presence of secondary diseases and opportunistic infections, the number of CD4 + T-lymphocytes was lower, and the level of serum concentration and spontaneous production of IL-4, IFN-γ and viral load was higher compared to patients without these ailments. In the case of secondary diseases and opportunistic infections, the frequency of death of patients was significantly higher than in their absence.

Keywords: HIV, tuberculosis, viral load, mortality, cytokines