1 Dr. Amar Salman, 2 Dr. Adeel Ismail, 3Dr. Rai Adnan Ahmad
About the distribution of lymphocyte phenotypes specifically in children has very limited information with the connection, particular; phenotypes may have with the respiratory illness. The main aim of the research was to explore lymphocyte distributions in children accordingly as the age of years and to examine the respiratory illness frequency associations in the time period of first 2 years of life. It is hypothesized as an elevated illness frequency may be inked with those specific phenotypes which express previous antigen exposure and/or activation of immune. 73 children were trailed in the initial two years of their life with routine symptom writings and two times monthly calls to ascertain the incidence of respiratory illness. When children crossed their 2 years of age, the phenotypes of circulating blood lymphocytes were measured by flow cytometry. Illness link with phenotypes were generally adjusted for parents’ education level; hours per week in day care; one hour in a week exposed to environmental tobacco smoke, or water damage specifically in the bedroom; with asthma and allergy history. The resulting median lymphocyte count was 4.0 x 10 per liter (standard deviation, 1.3) with a CD4/CD8 count of 2.28, consistent with published values. Rates of illness were directly linked with the percentage CD8+ CD38+ T cells (unadjusted p = .03, adjusted p = .014), CD8+ CD45RO+ T cells (unadjusted p = .06, adjusted p = .036), and CD4+ CD45RO+ T cells (unadjusted p = .01, adjusted p = .005). Our conclusion is that there is an association between the distribution of lymphocyte phenotypes and the incidence of respiratory illness early in life. It is recommended that there will be a future study to understand the directionality of this association.