CD4 T-Cell Recent Thymic Emigrants, Blood

Clinical Use

Use

Evaluating thymic reconstitution in patients following hematopoietic cell transplantation, chemotherapy, immunomodulatory therapy, and immunosuppression. Evaluating thymic recovery in patients who are HIV-positive and on highly active antiretroviral therapy. Evaluating thymic output in patients with DiGeorge syndrome or other cellular immunodeficiencies. Assessing the naive T-cell compartment in a variety of immunological contexts (autoimmunity, cancer, immunodeficiency, and transplantation). Identification of thymic remnants post-thymectomy for malignant thymoma or as an indicator of relapse of disease (malignant thymoma) or other contexts of thymectomy.

Special Instructions

Not provided.

Limitations

The CD4 recent thymic emigrants (RTE) assay is likely to be most helpful when used along with measurement of T-cell receptor excision circles (TRECS / T-Cell Receptor Excision Circles Analysis, Blood) for appropriate correlation of thymic output, especially in context of T cell lymphopenia, post-hematopoietic cell transplant and other cellular or combined immunodeficiencies. CD4 RTE measured along with TREC provides a comprehensive assessment of thymopoiesis but should not be used in adults over the sixth decade of life as clinically meaningful information on thymic function is limited in the older population due to a physiological decline in thymic activity.

Test Details

New York Approved