Nonsurviving HIV-1-infected patients have markedly increasing serum sCD14 concentrations over time. In a longitudinal study, serum samples from patients (n = 26) with blood CD4 lymphocytes less than 100 × 106/L were collected at different time points. The patients could be divided into two groups: patients who survived the study period (up to 6 months after last serum collection; n = 12; ▧) and patients who died during the study period (n = 14, □). When using linear regression analysis, variations in sCD14 serum concentration and blood CD4 lymphocyte number could be analyzed and expressed as changes per time unit (100 days). The results showed increasing sCD14 levels in the patents who died and relatively stable levels in the surviving patients (P < .001 comparing the 2 groups). In contrast, both nonsurvivors and survivors had similar decreasing number of CD4 lymphocytes in blood during the study period. Shown are medians with corresponding 25 to 75 percentiles.
