Abstract

A pilot longitudinal study was conducted for 3 months on HIV positive and AIDS patients on antiretroviral therapy, at a day care clinic at the Yaoundé Central Hospital, Cameroon, between April and July 2008. A total of 223 HIV patients were recruited following initiation and each patient benefited from pretherapeutic tests. Social-demographic, clinical and biological data were recorded for each subject and finally analyzed using standard statistical procedures. Out of the 223 subjects on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in the study, 153 were females (68. 6%) and 70 were males (31. 6%). The age group that was most represented was 30 - 39 (37.7%). The mean age of patients was 39.34 ± 11.31 years. At initiation the highest administered antiretroviral (ARV) regimen was Zidulam N (34.10%). For hepatotoxicity evaluation, with aspartate aminotransferase (ASAT) study, 5.8% of patients showed degree 1 and 1.3% of patients had degree 2 changes. In alanine amino transferase (ALAT), 3.70% of patients showed degree 1 and 3.95% degree 2 changes. The ARV regimen that was involved in most of these changes was Zidulam N. The assessment of nephrotoxicity in the creatinine study, only 2.24% of patient had degree 1 changes and no particular ARV regimen showed any creatinine changes. The Glomerullar Filtration Rate (GFR) for each ARV regimen showed no significance difference at p = 0.557. The ARV regimen administered to patients during the study did not really affect creatinine levels and hence showed no risk of toxicity to the kidneys.

Key words: Highly active antiretroviral therapy, hepatotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, human immuno virus, acquired immune defficiency syndrome, antiretroviral, regimen.