Table 2. Treatment responses in pediatric patients treated with artemisinin-based combination chemotherapies.
| Treatment response parameters | Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine | Artemether-lumefantrine | ||||||||
| 2005–2006(n = 149) | 2007–2008(n = 84) | P value | 2005–2006(n = 73) | 2007–2008(n = 168) | P value | |||||
| Initial responses to treatment | ||||||||||
| Mean time to parasite clearance (95% CI) in hours | 37.8 | (35.6–40.0) | 46.0 | (43.8–48.1) | 0.002 | 45.0 | (42.3–47.8) | 49.8 | (48.2–51.3) | 0.02 |
| Parasite prevalence by day 1 (%) | 78/142 | (55%) | 73/84 | (87%) | <0.001 | 59/73 | (81%) | 155/164 | (95%) | 0.002 |
| Parasite prevalence by day 2 (%) | 6/142 | (4%) | 4/83 | (5%) | 1.0 | 5/73 | (7%) | 21/163 | (13%) | 0.2 |
| Parasite prevalence by day 3 (%) | 0/142 | (0%) | 0/82 | (0%) | - | 0/73 | (0%) | 0/163 | (0%) | - |
| Median log10 day 1 parasite reduction ratio (95% CI) | 2.5 | (2.3–2.6) | 1.8 | (1.4–2.0) | <0.001 | 1.9 | (1.6–2.2) | 1.4 | (1.3–1.6) | <0.001 |
| - in children aged <2.5 yrs | 2.4 | (2.2–2.5) | 1.7 | (1.4–1.8) | <0.001 | 2.2 | (2.0–2.4) | 1.4 | (1.3–1.6) | <0.001 |
| - in children aged ≥2.5 yrs | 2.3 | (2.2–2.5) | 1.4 | (1.3–1.6) | <0.001 | 2.2 | (2.1–2.3) | 1.4 | (1.3–1.7) | <0.001 |
| % of baseline parasite density | ||||||||||
| Median day 1 (range) | 0.2% | (0%–27%) | 1.6% | (0%–110%) | <0.001 | 1.3% | (0%–25%) | 4.1% | (0%–1,100%) | <0.001 |
| Median day 2 (range) | 0% | (0%–1.3%) | 0% | (0%–0.5%) | 0.8 | 0% | (0%–0.4%) | 0% | (0%–8%) | 0.1 |
| Mean time to fever clearance (95% CI) in hours | 25.7 | (24.7–26.7) | 28.0 | (26.0–30.1) | <0.001 | 27.3 | (25.4–29.2) | 30.7 | (29.0–32.4) | 0.002 |
| Risk of recurrent parasitemia | ||||||||||
| Day 28 KM estimate of recrudescent primary infections (95% CI) in % | 1.1 | (0.4–5.9) | 1.3 | (0.2–8.7) | 1.0 | 0 | - | 1.1 | (0.6–5.8) | 0.5 |
| Day 84 KM estimate of recrudescent primary infections (95% CI) in % | 7.2 | (3.6–14.1) | 14.4 | (7.7–26.2) | 0.1 | 5.8 | (1.9–17.3) | 15.4 | (10.3–22.7) | 0.05 |
| Day 84 KM estimate of reinfections (95% CI) in % | 35.7 | (27.9–44.8) | 45.0 | (34.4–57.1) | 0.2 | 38.5 | (27.8–51.6) | 42.9 | (35.3–51.4) | 0.6 |
| Median time to reinfection (range) in days | 42 | (21–84) | 42 | (21–84) | 0.7 | 42 | (21–84) | 49 | (19–84) | 0.8 |
| Median hemoglobin recovery1 (range) in g/dL | 1.0 | (−2.2–6.0) | 0.9 | (−2.3–5.8) | 0.3 | 1.1 | (−1–5.4) | 1.0 | (−2.1–5.4) | 0.7 |
| Gametocyte carrier rate (%)2 | 4/136 | (3%) | 1/76 | (1%) | 0.7 | 1/73 | (1%) | 1/154 | (0.6%) | 0.5 |
1
Change of hemoglobin blood concentration from baseline to day 28.
2
Cumulative rate from day 7 to day 84.