The preliminary study of lymphocyte subsets in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome including critical and common type

Objective To study changes of lymphocyte subsets in sev ere acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) patients including critical type and common type in order to increase diagnosis and establish a guide for therapy.Method Flow cytometer with multi-color fluroscence and hematology analyzer were used to detecte the expression of lymphocytes and its subsets in 155 cases of SARS including 25 cases of critical type and 130 cases of common type. Results Statistical analyse by means of SAS software show that there was significant decrease in counts of common type group on WBC, lymphocyte and some of its subsets such as CD3+,CD3+CD4+,CD3+CD4-CD8-,NK,CD19+CD5+,CD45RA+CD4+,CD45RO+CD4+,CD28+CD4+,CD28+CD8+,CD28+CD8- and CD95+CD4+ subsets when compared with critical type group. In addition, the subsets of critical type group and common type group less than healthy people, and critical type group decreased more markedly.Conclusion The lymphocytes and its subsets were impaired in SARS patients, especially for T cells and its subpopulations. Both absolute counts (AC) and percentages (PC) of subpopulation cells showed significant changes of immune cells in SARS, and AC seems to be more meaningful than PC. The detection of lymphocyte subsets are to be a new indicator for laboratory diagnosis and monitoring.