cells and is created by the exposed silver grains, is 
absolutely clear-cut. In three experiments (using 
the National Institutes of Health resource facility in 
Madison, Wisconsin), Dr. Lewis and her colleagues 
have studied 55 HIV-infected individuals in blinded 
fashion v^ith no knowledge of their cUnical condi- 
tion. Reproducibility of the measurement was con- 
firmed in eight blinded, split-blood specimens. Of 
the 25 AIDS patients studied, —50% had > 1 tran- 
scriptionally active cell per 300 cells. More impor- 
tantly, there was a strong negative correlation be- 
tween in situ numbers and Karnofsky score (a 
measure of clinical well-being), which indicates 
that the presence of increased numbers of tran- 
scriptionally active HIV-infected cells is associated 
with declining clinical condition. This may indicate 
PUBLICATIONS 
that viremia per se can account for the pathogene- 
sis of HIV infection. Other parameters examined in- 
cluded CD4 numbers, time on azidothymidine 
(AZT) treatment, other hematologic variables, and 
CDS cellular subsets. No correlation was observed 
between in situ number and CD4 cellular count. 
Increased percentages of CDS'*' CD57''" cells corre- 
lated with increased numbers of transcriptionally 
active cells. Future experiments will examine larger 
numbers of individuals, measure p24 antigen levels 
as an indicator of viremia, and determine whether 
time on AZT treatment is significantly associated 
with levels of transcriptionally active cells. 
Dr. Lewis is Assistant Professor of Microbiology 
and Immunology at Baylor College of Medicine. 
Articles 
Barron, K.S., DeCunto, C.L., Montalvo, J.F., Orson, P.M., and Lewis, D.E. 1988. Abnormalities of im- 
munoregulation in Kawasaki syndrome. J Rheumatol 15:1243-1249- 
Hoy, J. P., Lewis, D.E., and Miller, G.G. 1988. Functional versus phenotypic analysis of T cells in subjects sero- 
positive for the human immunodeficiency virus: a prospective study of in vitro responses to Cryptococcus 
neoformans. J Infect Dis 158:1071-1078. 
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