Routine CD4 monitoring in HIV patients with viral suppression: is it really necessary? A Portuguese cohort

Abstract Purpose CD4 cell-count has been regarded as the key surrogate marker for prognostic staging and therapeutic monitoring of HIV-infected individuals. Our purpose was to assess the probability of maintaining a CD4 count >200 cells/μL in patients with continuous viral suppression and CD4 cell counts >200cells/μL. Methods Retrospective cohort study of HIV-infected patients, treatment naïve, who started antiretroviral therapy between 2007 and 2011. We estimated the probability of maintaining CD4 counts >200cells/μL during continuous viral suppression using the Kaplan-Meier method. The hazard ratios of a CD4 count 200cells/μL was 40.5 months. Ninety-three percent of patients maintained CD4 counts ≥200cells/μL during the period of continuous viral suppression. Compared with those with an initial CD4 count ≥350 cells/μL, patients with initial CD4 count