Clinical chemistry profiles in injection heroin users from Coastal Region, Kenya

Table 1 Demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics of the study participants

Characteristic	HIV-1 uninfected		HIV-1 infected		P
	HC, n = 15	IHUs n = 23	ART-naive IHUs, n = 16	ART-exposed IHUs, n = 22
Age, yrs.	25.6 (8.7)	29.2 (7.1)	31.2 (5.9)	33.1 (8.5)^a	0.008
Female/male, (%)	40.0/60.0	39.1/60.9	50.0/50.0	63.6/36.4	0.351
Injection drugs, n (%)
Heroin	-	23 (100.0)	16 (100.0)	22 (100.0)	0.999
Diazepam	-	0 (0.0)	3 (18.8)	2 (9.1)	-
Duration of injection, n (%)
<1 yr.	-	12 (52.2)	2 (12.5)	4 (18.2)	-
1-3 yrs.	-	7 (30.4)	9 (56.2)	5 (22.7)
>3 yrs.	-	4 (17.4)	5 (31.3)	13 (59.1)
Non-injection drugs, n (%)
Bhang	-	8 (34.8)	7 (43.8)	11 (50.0)	0.584
Brown sugar	-	3 (13.1)	2 (12.5)	5 (22.7)	-
Rohypnol	-	12 (52.2)	9 (56.2)	16 (72.7)	0.338
Cigarettes	-	18 (78.3)	12 (75.0)	17 (77.3)	0.972
Khat	-	5 (21.7)	3 (18.8)	8 (36.4)	-
Cocktail	-	5 (21.7)	6 (37.5)	9 (40.9)	0.351
Alcohol	-	8 (34.8)	9 (56.2)	15 (68.2)	0.076
CD4+ T cell count/μl	755 (463)	986 (474)	448 (337)^a,b	301 (426)^a,b	<0.0001
Viral loads, copies/μl	-	-	13,470 (81,176)	150 (17,761)	0.163
Hepatitis B	-	1 (4.3)	2 (12.5)	1 (4.5)	-
Hepatitis C	-	1 (4.3)	3 (18.8)	5 (22.7)	-

Data shown are medians (IQR) unless indicated. HC, healthy controls. ART, anti-retroviral treatment. HIV-1, human immunodeficiency virus-1. IHUs, injection heroin users. Brown sugar, crude heroin. Cocktail, cigarette and bhang mixture. Data analysis was conducted using chi-square for proportions; and Kruskal Wallis tests for continuous data. Following the Kruskal Wallis tests, post-hoc Bonferroni corrections for multiple comparisons were performed based on the Mann Whitney between-group tests (significant at P < 0.0125). ^aART-exposed and ART-naive IHUs vs. HC, P < 0.01. ^bART-exposed and ART-naive IHUs vs. HIV-1 uninfected IHUs, P < 0.0001. Values in bold are statistically significant at P-values indicated.