Facscount equipment

The CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T lymphocyte counts were performed at the Virology Laboratory, as established by the National Network of CD4⁺/CD8⁺ T lymphocytes of the Ministry of Health. The flow cytometry methodology was used, which evaluated a whole blood sample with EDTA, using BD FACScount equipment and BD multi-test reagents (CD45, CD3, CD4, and CD8) (BD, Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA), following the protocol recommended by the manufacturer.
The plasma viral load was determined at the Virology Laboratory, following the standard methodology of the National Viral Load Network of the Ministry of Health, based on qPCR technology, using the Sample Purific CV HIV-1 Extraction Kit, the HIV-1 Viral Load Amplification, and the Abbott 2000mrt thermal cycler (ABBOTT, Chicago, IL, USA) and all steps were followed according to the manufacturer’s recommendations. Viral load measurements were used in log10.

The TCD4⁺ and TCD8⁺ lymphocyte counts were performed at the Virology Laboratory, as established by the National Network of CD4⁺/CD8⁺ T lymphocytes of the Ministry of Health. Flow cytometry methodology was used, which evaluated a whole blood sample with EDTA, using BD FACScount equipment and BD multitest reagents (CD45, CD3, CD4 and CD8) (BD, Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA), following the protocol recommended by the manufacturer.
Plasma viral load was determined at the Virology Laboratory, following the standard methodology of the National Viral Load Network of the Ministry of Health, based on real-time PCR technology, using the Sample Purific CV HIV-1 Extraction Kit and the HIV-1 Viral Load Amplification and the Abbott 2000 mrt thermal cycler (ABBOTT, Chicago, IL, USA) and all steps were followed by the manufacturer’s recommendations. Viral load measurements were used in log10.