Abstract

PRELIMINARY STUDY ON EFFECT OF HIGHLY ACTIVE ANTIRETROVIRAL THERAPY (HAART) ON LIVER AND KIDNEYS OF CHILDREN BORN TO HIV INFECTED MOTHERS IN SOUTHWEST NIGERIA

Ajulo MO*¹, Omole KO², Moody JO³, Oladokun R⁴

Abstract

There are nearly 1200 daily new infections in children less than fifteen years of age, more than 90% of them found in low income countries. More than 275,000 children received ART, which made about 38% of those in need of ART. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of HAART on liver and kidneys of children from age zero to five years. One hundred and twenty-one children attending HIV clinic in University College Hospital, Ibadan were recruited for the study in four groups. The first group involved children who took HAART, the second involved children that took nevirapine for six weeks and continued with co-trimoxazole, the third group involved HIV infected children who were not on HAART but received co-trimoxazole. The fourth group involved the control children. A 2ml blood was collected from the femoral vein, centrifuged to obtain serum which was analyzed for liver enzymes namely ALT and AST and creatinine. Elevation of ALT was highest among group B (26.67%) followed by Group A (25%) and Group D (11.76%). Elevation of AST was highest among Group B (86.67%) followed by Group A (75%) and Group D (41.18%). Group B (62.22%) has the highest percentage of children with abnormal values for serum creatinine followed by Group A (45%) and Group D (35.29%). Highest number of participants with abnormal creatinine clearance values was found in Group B (88.89%) followed by Group A (75%) and Group D (61.76%). Group 3 was not used in the comparison because only two participants represented the Group with contrasting results. Analysis of variance showed that HAART use has reliable effect on the kidneys (p< .1) and liver of children (p

Keywords: ART, HAART, HIV, Pediatrics, Children, liver, Kidney, AIDS.