. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Dec 15.

Published in final edited form as: J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2013 Dec 15;64(5):10.1097/QAI.0b013e3182a7ee2e. doi: 10.1097/QAI.0b013e3182a7ee2e

Table 3.

Effect modification of the association between HCV and CRP by liver-related markers^a

	HCV-uninfected	HCV-infected^b
Liver fibrosis (kPa)
<8 (n=704)	ref	−0.340 (−0.646 – −0.033)^*
8–12.2 (n=191)	ref	−1.50 (−2.12 – −0.886)^*
≥12.3 (n=118)		n/a^c
Albumin (g/dl)
<3.4 (n=54)		n/a^c
≥3.4 (n=1060)	ref	−0.544 (−0.802 – −0.286)^*
AST^d (ULN)
<1.5 (n=662)	ref	−0.326 (−0.575 – −0.077)^*
1.5–2.5 (n=265)		n/a^c
≥2.5 (n=187)		n/a^c
ALT^d (ULN)
<1.5 (n=749)	ref	−0.349 (−0.589 – −0.109)^*
1.5–2.5 (n=205)		n/a^c
≥2.5 (n=160)		n/a^c

Abbreviations: CRP = C reactive protein, AST = apartate aminotransferase, ALT = alanine aminotransferase

Statistically significant at p<0.05.

Difference in mean log_e CRP was estimated from a linear regression of log_e CRP adjusted for age, sex, race, injection drug use intensity, and body mass index. Linear regression was performed for each strata of liver fibrosis, albumin, AST, or ALT; the difference in mean log_e CRP was compared to the reference group which included HCV-uninfected participants. 95% confidence intervals around the difference were estimated from bootstrapping using 1000 replications to account for non-Gaussian residuals.

HCV-infected category includes both HCV-monoinfected (67.4%) and HCV-coinfected (32.6%) participants.

Coefficients unable to be estimated due to no or small numbers in the HCV-uninfected reference group.

Categories for serum aspartate aminiotransferase (AST) or alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were created by multiplying 1.5 or 2.5 times the upper limit of normal (ULN). ULN was based on the sex-specific cut-points of 30 U/l for males and 19 U/l for females.