An important part of taking charge of your health involves regular visits to your healthcare provider for blood tests, or lab work. Certain laboratory tests are used to monitor your HIV infection and overall health.
These lab tests can help you and your healthcare provider:
- Decide when to start or change HIV treatment
- Know whether or not your meds are working
- Know if any of your meds are causing side effects
- Watch for other infections and problems
- Decide which HIV meds are best for you
Two of the most useful tests are the viral load test and the CD4 cell count tests. These tests help decide when to start or change treatment, and let you know whether or not your meds are working against the virus.
- Viral load: Measures the amount of HIV in your blood, so you want this number to be as low as possible. One key goal of HIV treatment is to achieve and maintain a viral load that is "undetectable."
- A person with HIV can have a viral load anywhere between less than 50 copies to over 1,000,000 copies per milliliter of blood (copies/mL). Less than 50 copies/mL is considered undetectable.
- CD4 cell count: Determines how many infection-fighting cells (also called T-helper cells) you have, so you want this number to be as high as possible. One key goal of HIV treatment is to increase your CD4 count, which makes your immune system stronger.
- CD4 cell counts between 500 and 1,500 per milliliter of blood are considered normal. AIDS begins when the CD4 count is less than 200.
The following tests are used to monitor your overall health and to let you and your healthcare provider know if any of your meds are causing side effects or other problems:
- Complete blood count (CBC): Measures (1) your total white blood cells, which fight off infections; (2) your platelets, which help your blood to clot; and (3) your red blood cells, which use hemoglobin to carry oxygen throughout your body. Your red blood cell count should be watched closely as some HIV meds may cause abnormally low counts — a condition known as anemia, which causes fatigue.
- Lipids test: Measures the two major lipids (types of fat) in the blood: triglycerides and cholesterol. Your body uses triglycerides to store energy and uses cholesterol to form cell membranes and hormones. However, certain HIV meds can abnormally increase triglyceride and cholesterol levels, which may raise the risk of heart attack and stroke, and may lead to unusual changes in your body shape, such as lipoatrophy.
- Glucose test: Measures your blood sugar level and your risk for diabetes.
- Liver function tests: Determine how well your liver is working. Your liver helps process the meds you are taking and sometimes can become "overloaded." These tests can also identify possible liver disease. Based on the results of these tests, your healthcare provider may need to adjust the dosing of your HIV meds.
- Kidney function tests: Determine how well your kidneys are working. These tests measure levels of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine, which are waste products that are removed by the kidneys. Based on the results of these tests, your healthcare provider may need to adjust the dosing of your HIV meds.
The following test is used to decide which HIV meds have the best chance of working for you and is helpful before you start or change meds:
- Drug resistance test: Determines which meds your virus is "sensitive" to and which ones your virus is "resistant" to. Your HIV is drug resistant if it can make copies of itself even though you are taking meds. Treatment failure almost always leads to drug resistance and/or AIDS. Based on the results of these tests, your healthcare provider may change the meds that you are taking and select ones that have a better chance of working against the virus.
To learn more about understanding your lab tests, click here to view a detailed presentation or talk to your healthcare provider.
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