Relationship Between Tongue Characteristics and CD4 count in HIV/AIDS Patients

Objective: According to Traditional Chinses Medicine (TCM) theory, to observe the tongue characteristics of HIV carriers/AIDS patients and find out the relationship between them and CD4+ T lymphocytes count.Methods: 1. 437 HIV carriers/AIDS patients who came from three Infectious Diseases Hospitals and 46 voluntary individuals in control group were questionnaired and their glossal appearance was checked. CD4+T lymphocytes count were also recorded simultaneously.2. Tongue observation was under natural day light and then photos of the tongue were taken. 3.Tongue pictures were analyzed by three professionals independently, and the final results were concluded. 4. SPSS 13.0 software were used to analyze the detectable rate of every tongue characteristic and their potential correlation with CD4+T lymphocytes count. Results: 1. The main tongue characteristics of HIV carriers/AIDS patients were tongue body color dark red, purple, stasis dark and tongue coating yellow, thick, greasy. 2. Bivariate correlation analysis showed that the detectable rate of moderate lingual body, decayed coating of tongue, incomplete loss of the coating of the tongue, inconsistent distribution of the coating of the tongue were negative correlated with CD4+T lymphocyte count in HIV carriers/AIDS patients, while that of dark body of tongue, swollen tongue, indented edge of tongue were positively correlated with CD4+T lymphocyte count.Conclusion: There are unique changes of tongue characteristics in HIV carriers/AIDS patients. It could also reflect changes of CD4+T lymphocyte count in HIV carriers/AIDS patients. Tongue characteristics can be an indicator of the systemic immune function in HIV positive individuals.