Fig. 2

Evaluation of immune impairment in visceral leishmaniasis (VL) patients throughout clinical follow-up. Absolute counts of CD4⁺ (a) and CD8⁺ (c) T lymphocytes of non-relapsing (NR) and relapsing (R) VL patients. Gain of CD4⁺ T lymphocytes during clinical follow-up in relation to the active phase of VL (b). Positive correlation between the absolute counts of CD8⁺ T lymphocytes and the aspartate aminotransferase - AST (d) and alanine aminotransferase - ALT (e) levels during the active phase of VL (Spearman correlation, r = 0.64 and r = 0.62, respectively, p < 0.05). Each point represents a VL patient and each color represents the same patient in the different stages of clinical follow-up. The black dashed line represents the median value of healthy subjects (HS). The horizontal bars represent the median values of each group. Post-treatment: Early post-treatment. Mpt: months post-treatment. Asterisks denote significant differences between the phases of clinical follow-up within the R or NR group itself or even between the R and NR group: *p < 0.05. ** p < 0.01