Urinary neopterin concentrations and T-cell subset data in HIV-1 infection

We investigated the ability of urinary neopterin concentrations and T-cell subset data, and their ratios to discriminate between anti-HIV-1 seronegatives, seropositives, and AIDS cases. Using receiver-operated-characteristics curves, neopterin levels were shown to provide the best discrimination. Of the ratios derived from the single variables, neopterin per CD4+ cell counts and neopterin per CD4+/CD8+ cell ratio were superior to the CD4+/CD8+ cell ratio. Multivariate analyses were performed using a generalized likelihood ratio approach as well as linear discriminant analysis. The combination of neopterin concentration and CD4+ T-cell count is well suited to discriminate between various stages of HIV-1 infection and, therefore, we recommend using more than one assay to evaluate disease progression.