I was probably infected in early February ,2001 (symptoms late Feb) WB indeterminate (gp160only) March 1 , positive April 10 (T4 391 23 bRNA 185 000). Started Sustiva+Combivir+ Viracept April 28 (awaiting resistance tests).

My question: Ive read that a set point (relatively stable viral load) is reached after six months and this set point correlates with speed of progression. Is there any correlation between early t4 level and progression? Should I regard this t4 figure as the nadir, assuming therapy is successful? How quickly do t4 levels fall back to nadir when treatment is interrupted?

Thanks for the forum; its been a great source of information and reassurance.

The correlation between viral load level (set point) and clinical progression is quite good. The correlation between clinical progression and CD4 count is not very good, particularly above a CD4 count of 300. I would assume that the current CD4 count is the nadir. In people who are drug naive, reach an undetectable level of viral load, and then stop treatment for a while, the CD4 count can take months, if at all to drift back down to the nadirMH