Archives of Medical Laboratory Sciences

Background and Aim: HIV is associated with inflammation and liver damage. Assay of inflammatory markers and liver biopsy are expensive for resource - poor countries to use routinely, necessitating the use of non - invasive markers. This study seeks to examine the association of some surrogate markers of inflammation with some non-invasive markers of fibrosis among patients with HIV infection in Benin City, Nigeria.

Methods: Venous blood was collected from all participants. The study was carried out in the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria. Surrogate inflammatory markers {such as neutrophil / lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet / lymphocyte ratio (PLR), mean platelet volume (MPV) and systemic immune - inflammatory index (SII)}, non - invasive markers of fibrosis {such as fibrosis index based on four factors (FIB-4), aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index (APRI) and fibrosis - cirrhosis index (FCI)} and CD4 counts were evaluated in 125 patients with HIV infection {44 Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) - naïve and 81 on HAART)} and 48 non -HIV individuals using standard techniques.

Results: The prevalence of liver fibrosis among patients with HIV infection on HAART was 2.47%, 6.17% and 2.47% using APRI, FIB-4 and FCI respectively whereas only FIB-4 (6.82%) and FCI (2.27%) revealed liver fibrosis in HAART - naïve patients. NLR, SII and PLR were significantly higher in HAART - naïve patients than those on HAART. PLR was also significantly higher in HAART-naïve HIV patients compared to non-HIV patients (p < 0.01). FIB-4 was significantly higher in patients with HIV infection on HAART (1.54 ± 0.30) than in non-HIV individuals (0.54 ± 0.06) (p<0.05). PLR, MPV and CD4 count had a significant correlation with some of the markers of fibrosis in patients with HIV infection in the different study groups.

Conclusion: Liver fibrosis was detected more with FIB-4, and PLR was the only inflammatory marker that significantly correlated with all markers of liver damage among patients with HIV infection on HAART.

^*Corresponding Author: Richard Omoregie; Email: richard.omoregie@ubth.org; ORCID ID: 0000-0002-8601-159X

Please cite this article as: Aikpitanyi-Iduitua GA, Lawrence Idemudia N, Aikpitanyi-Iduitua RO, Omoregie R. Association of Some Surrogate Inflammatory Markers and Non - invasive Measures of Liver Fibrosis among Patients with HIV Infection. Arch Med Lab Sci. 2024;10:1-10 (e1). https://doi.org/10.22037/amls.v9.41783