BACKGROUNDCD4 count is used to determine antiretroviral therapy (ART) eligibility. In China, flow cytometers are mostly located in urban areas with limited access by patients residing in remote areas. In an attempt to address this issue, we conducted a study to validate the performance of Alere PIMA point-of-care CD4 analyzer.

METHODSVenous and finger-prick blood specimens were collected from HIV-positive participants from two voluntary counseling and testing sites in Yunnan Province. Both venous and finger-prick blood specimens were tested with the PIMA analyzer. Venous blood specimens tested with the Becton Dickinson FACSCalibur were used as a reference.

RESULTSVenous specimens from 396 and finger-prick specimens from 387 persons were available for analysis. CD4 counts by PIMA correlated well with those from FACSCalibur with an R2 of 0.91 for venous blood and 0.81 for finger-prick blood. Compared to FACSCalibur, the PIMA analyzer yielded lower counts with a mean bias of - 47.0 cells/μl (limit of agreement, [LOA]: -204-110 cells/μl) for venous blood and -71.0 cells/μl (LOA: -295-153 cells/μl) for finger-prick blood. For a CD4 threshold of 350 cells/μl, the positive predictive value (PPV) of PIMA was 84.2% and 75.7% and the negative predictive value (NPV) was 97.6% and 95.8% for venous and finger-prick blood, respectively. For an ART threshold of 500 cells/μl, the corresponding PPV was 90.3% and 84.0% and NPV was 94.3% and 93.4%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONSCD4 counting using venous blood with PIMA analyzers is a feasible alternative to a large flow cytometer to determine ART eligibility.