LIVER FUNCTION INDICATORS IN HIV PATIENTS LIVING IN AN ECONOMICALLY IMPOVERISHED SOCIETY

There are conflicting information in literatures on the status of hepatic functionality in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in both males and females. This study therefore examined liver function in five hundred (500) HIV (320 females with mean age 25.3±7.4 years and 180 males with mean age 24.3±2.5 years) patients attending five (5) PEPFAR centres and two hundred (200) apparently healthy (HIV negative) individuals as control using Plasma concentration of alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total bilirubin (T.BIL) and conjugated bilirubin (C.BIL) as test indicators. These liver function test indicators were determined using standard methods/procedures.

The AST and ALT activities in HIV patients were (89.56±19.51 IU/L) and (38.6±19.51 IU/L) which were significantly higher than the control subjects (15.7±0.84) and (12.9±0.691 IU/L) respectively. The ALP activity in HIV patients was (67.56±4.95 IU/L) which was significantly higher than the control subjects (23.6±2.00 IU/L). The mean level of T.BIL of HIV patients (1.054±0.07 mg/dl) was slightly higher than the control subjects (0.79±0.05 mg/dL). The mean level of C.BIL (0.472±0.03 mg/dl) was slightly lower than the control subjects (0.05±0.03 mg/dL). Conclusively, this study showed that the levels of ALT, AST, ALP and T.BIL are useful indicators in assessing the effect of HIV on the liver as well as in monitoring the progress of treatment efficacy in HIV patients.