A preliminary study on intestinal microflora of AIDS patients and its correlation with CD4~+ T lymphocytes.

Objective To investigate the intestinal microecology in AIDS patients and its correlation with CD4+T lymphocytes. Methods A total of 89 cases were recruited into the cohort and divided into two groups: experimental group(AIDS patients,n =59) and control group(health adults,n =30). Feces samples were collected. The intestinal florae were observed by gram stain. All feces samples were cultures under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions for four species of bacteria(Bifidobacterium,Enterococcus,Enterobacteriaceae and Lactobacillus) and the yeasts,the ratio of B /E was calculated as well. Results There was statistically significant difference between the two groups in intestinal flora index(P 0.001). The majority of the control group was normal,while the majority in the experimental group was found to be Degree I. Compared with control group,the counts of Enterococcus and yeasts in AIDS patients were significantly increased(P 0. 05). The CD4+T lymphocyte count was significantly negatively correlated with the Enterococcus count and the intestinal flora index. Conclusion The intestinal microflora of AIDS patients is obviously different with normal persons,indicating the disorder of intestinal microflora in AIDS patients. And this is correlated with the CD4+T lymphocyte count.