Introduction: Western-blot was the first technique used to confirm the presence of anti-HIV antibodies. We aim to analyze the different profiles of the HIV western-blot (WB) test and assess their association with the different clinical and immunological stages of infection.
Methods: Retrospective study included 688 cases of HIV infection confirmed by WB (HIV BLOT 2.2, MP Diagnostics), at the immunology medical analysis laboratory in collaboration with the infectious diseases department at the CHU Ibn Rochd, between January 2019 and December 2020. For the analysis of the results of the WB profiles, we adopted the interpretation criteria of the WHO (World Health Organization).
Results: HIV-1 complete profile (PC: GP160, GP120, P66, P55, P51, GP41, P39, P31, P24, P17) was noted in 41.52% of cases. While 58.04% presented an incomplete HIV-1 profile. P39 was missing in 42.98% of cases, compared to 25.73% for P17, and 28.07%, 15.78%, 7.6%, 6.43%, 1.46%, %0.73% for P55, GP 51, P66, P31, GP24, GP41 respectively. A statistically significant relationship between the clinically advanced stages of HIV infection and the absence of P17, P55 and P39 antibodies in the WB test has been determined.
Conclusion: WB profile during HIV infection may be useful in predicting the stages of HIV-positive patients in situations where the assay of CD4 count and viral load are not available.