Stroke and HIV: Correlation between Viral Load and Type of Stroke

Introduction: The role of immunosuppression of TCD4+ lymphocytes in the onset of stroke in people living with HIV has been reported in numerous studies examining the co-morbidity of stroke and HIV. Objective: To determine the correlation between the viral load and the type of stroke. Methodology: This was a 7-month cross-sectional descriptive study carried out in the Neurology Department of Loandjili General Hospital in Pointe-Noire. The study population consisted of patients living with HIV who had a stroke confirmed by brain scan. The sero-immunological investigation consisted of looking for T lymphocyte typing from two kits: a CD4+ T lymphocyte typing reagent kit (BD FACS Presto TM) and a GeneXpert kit for viral load (Xpert®HIV-1 Viral Load). The database was made from the 2010 version of Microsoft Excel. Results: We included 16 patients living with HIV, 56% of whom were women with a sex ration of 0.78. The mean age was 56.92 ± 11.21. The mean number of TCD4+ lymphocytes was 413.44 ± 677.95/mm3; minimum: 93/mm3; maximum: 2854/mm3. The mean viral load was 17,996.31 ± 20,982.22/mm3; minimum: 1002/mm3; maximum: 67,229/mm3. No significant difference between the viral load and the occurrence of the stroke (p = 0.13). Conclusion: Our study did not show a causal link between viral load, immunosuppression of TCD4+ lymphocytes and the onset of stroke.