Table 1. Baseline characteristics of patients.

Characteristics	Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine					Artemether-lumefantrine
	2005–2006(n = 149)		2007–2008(n = 84)		P value	2005–2006(n = 73)		2007–2008(n = 168)		P value
Demographic
Female/male gender	80/69		45/39		1.0	33/40		70/96		0.7
Median age (range) in years	2.1	(0.5–4.9)	2.5	(0.6–4.9)	0.03	2.2	(0.5–4.8)	2.8	(0.5–4.9)	<0.001
Median weight (range) in kg	10.1	(6.3–19.4)	11.1	(6.2–20.7)	0.04	10.5	(6.4–17.0)	11.6	(6.4–18.0)	<0.001
Clinical
Median axillary temperature (range) in °C	37.3	(36.0–40.1)	38.0	(36.2–40.5)	<0.001	37.3	(35.6–39.4)	37.9	(35.9–41.4)	<0.001
Mean heart rate (SD) in bpm	143	(25)	143	(20)	0.7	149	(21)	147	(23)	0.8
Parasitological
Mean number of previous P. falciparum malaria episodes (N; range)	2.5	(69; 0–15)	1.5	(45; 0–7)	0.2	1.6	(29; 0–7)	2.0	(91; 0–12)	0.5
Median asexual P. falciparum density (range) in parasites/µL	34,600	(2,200–218,000)	36,600	(2,200–290,000)	0.8	44,500	(2,400–350,000)	57,600	(2,100–862,000)	0.07
Proportion of patients with gametocytes (%)	4/149	(3%)	1/84	(1%)	0.7	1/73	(1%)	2/167	(1%)	1.0
Multiplicity of infection (number of clones, SD)	2.1	(1.2)	2.8	(1.2)	0.003	1.7	(0.7)	2.7	(1.2)	0.004
Infections with >1 genomic copy of MDR1	0/45	(0%)	0/28	(0%)	1.0	0/23	(0%)	2/62	(3%)	1.0
Hematology
Mean hemoglobin concentration (SD) in g/dL	9.0	(1.6)	9.2	(1.8)	0.4	8.8	(1.3)	9.2	(1.6)	0.03
Median neutrophil count (range) in 103 cells/µL	3.5	(0.6–15.5)	3.3	(1.3–16.5)	0.9	3.6	(1.0–17.5)	3.7	(0.5–13.1)	0.6
Median platelet count (range) in 103 cells/µL	166	(14–557)	154	(45–420)	0.7	114	(9–483)	142	(2–445)	0.8
Clinical chemistry
Medium serum ALT level (range) in IU/L	22	(8–330)	21	(9–173)	0.7	23	(9–230)	23	(8–844)	0.5
Medium serum creatinine (range) in µmol/L	41	(3–73)	40	(24–67)	0.9	39	(22–58)	40	(20–71)	0.3
Medium serum bilirubin (range) in µmol/L	13	(2–142)	12	(2–58)	0.1	16	(2–71)	16	(1–126)	0.8