European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Since the beginning of the epidemic, 76 million people have been infected with the HIV virus and about 33 million people have died of HIV/AIDS. Globally, 38.0 million people were living HIV at the end of 2019 according to the WHO report. In developing nations, the ever-growing incidence of HIV infection has placed a huge burden on economy, so there is a growing need for having cheaper alternatives for monitoring disease activity. Infections in people living with HIV reflect the immune suppression of the host. Hence, CRP can be used as a marker of degree of immune suppression, severity and type of opportunistic infections. Material and Methods: 144 HIV patients admitted in the General Medicine department of KIMS Hubballi are studied. It’s a single centered, prospective observational study carried out for a period of 2 years. Patient with opportunistic infection with CD4 count and CRP levels are studied. Statistical analysis was used to find the correlation between CD4 count and CRP. Results: The mean age of our study population was 36. 59 % of the population were males. Majority of the patients had opportunistic infection as oral candidiasis. In our study  mean CD4 count was 228.03 and mean  serum CRP levels was 22.98. In the study, As the severity of opportunistic infection increase, CRP levels increase and CD4 count decreases. Our study found a significant correlation (Pearson Correlation, r value - -0.781p value - <0.0001) between CD4 count and CRP levels. Conclusions: As CRP levels shows a significant negative correlation with CD4 count and significant positive correlation with type and severity of opportunistic infections, CRP levels can be used as a one of the marker of immunosuppression in place of CD4 count in resource-limited areas in patients with opportunistic infections.