Australian hemophiliac recipients of voluntary donor blood products longitudinally evaluated for AIDS. A clinical and laboratory study, 1983-1986.

Abstract

One hundred and sixty-one Australian patients with hereditary bleeding disorders comprising hemophilia A (120), hemophilia B (18), von Willebrand's disease (16), and seven symptomatic female hemophilia A or B carriers were screened for clinical and serological evidence of exposure to HTLV-III/LAV/ARV/HIV infection. During the previous five years (1979-1984) they had been treated almost exclusively with blood products derived from Australian voluntary donors. The prevalence of HTLV-III antibodies in 1985 was 45%, with the highest frequency being in those with severe hemophilia A (78%) and the lowest in patients with hemophilia B (6%). Antibody positivity correlated with a reduced absolute T helper (T4) cell numbers and/or an inverted T4:T8 ratio. Lymphadenopathy was detected in 23 subjects but only 13 had an abnormal T cell ratio. Comparison of seropositivity and T4:T8 ratios in 32 patients studied in 1983 and again in 1985 suggested that T4 cell deficiency reflected HTLV-III exposure rather than being a predisposing factor for infection with the virus. Individual patients showed considerable fluctuation in T cell subsets over a 12 month period of follow-up, but as a population there was a slight trend with time towards diminishing T4:T8 ratio only in the antibody positive hemophilia A patients of mild to moderate severity. Three (2%) of the 161 patients screened to date have developed confirmed AIDS with fatal outcome.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

• Authors: R J Garsia, P A Gatenby, A Basten, D F Kenny, K J Gallagher, K A Rickard, I D Gust, W Maskill
• Journal: Australian and New Zealand journal of medicine (Aust N Z J Med) Vol. 17 Issue 4 Pg. 371-8 (Aug 1987) ISSN: 0004-8291 [Print] Australia
• PMID: 2963611 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Antibodies, Viral
• Blood Coagulation Factors
• HIV Antibodies

Topics

• Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (immunology, transmission)
• Antibodies, Viral (analysis)
• Australia
• Blood Coagulation Factors (therapeutic use)
• Blood Donors
• Blood Transfusion
• Female
• Follow-Up Studies
• HIV (immunology)
• HIV Antibodies
• HIV Seropositivity (immunology)
• Hemophilia A (immunology, therapy)
• Humans
• Leukocyte Count
• Male
• Risk Factors
• T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer (immunology)
• T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory (immunology)