Table 1. Clinical characteristics of study participants.
| Clinical characteristics* | All (N = 134) |
HIV-negative (n = 26) |
Non-controllers (n = 28) |
ART-suppressed¶ (n = 38) |
Elite controllers (n = 42) |
P# | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gender | male | 109 | 25 | 25 | 31 | 28 | 0.001$ |
| female | 20 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 12 | ||
| others& | 5 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | ||
|
Age (years); median (min—max) |
49 (26–73) |
46 (26–71) |
47 (29–71) |
51 (28–73) |
50 (32–72) |
0.111 | |
| Plasma HIV RNA in infected individuals (copies/ml) | / | <40• | 30,837 (19,526–80,149) |
<75• | <75• | / | |
| CD4+ T-cells (cells/mm3) | 685 (460–974) |
792 (686–1,020) |
393 (254–586) |
524 (416–718) |
952 (680–1,125) |
<0.001 | |
| CD8+ T-cells (cells/mm3) | 756 (530–1,069) |
446 (353–616) |
974 (762–1,670) |
768 (581–1,068) |
820 (550–1,069) |
<0.001 | |
| CD4+ / CD8+ T-cell ratio | 0.83 (0.50–1.51) |
1.75 (1.31–2.36) |
0.40 (0.24–0.50) |
0.63 (0.47–0.88) |
1.18 (0.84–1.58) |
<0.001 | |
| Self-reported nadir CD4+ T-cells (cells/mm3)† | / | 400 (240–570) |
97 (27–253) |
600 (395–800) |
<0.001 | ||
| Individuals with detectable plasma Nef (n) | 63 | 0 | 23 | 18 | 22 | <0.001$ | |
| Detectable plasma Nef level (ng/ml) | 10.23 (7.01–11.98) |
/ | 11.63 (9.04–13.26) |
8.25 (6.83–10.95) |
8.78 (6.52–11.66) |
0.037 | |
* All values represent median (25%–75%) if not indicated otherwise.
¶ ART regimen: 18 (47.4%) received protease inhibitor (PI)-based therapy, 11 (28.9%) received non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI)-based therapy, 5 (13.2%) received therapy that included both, PI and NNRTI, and 4 (10.5%) were on regimens that did not contain either. Median duration of ART (min—max) was 2244 days (184–6809).
# Statistical comparison of subgroups using nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test if not indicated otherwise.
$ Calculated using Fisher exact test.
& Presenting intersex or male to female transition individuals.
•Three different tests were used for plasma HIV RNA detection with different limits of detection: in 23 out of 108 tested individuals the Roche COBAS® AmpliPrep/COBAS® TaqMan® HIV-1 Test (detection limit 20 RNA copies/ml), in 67/108 individuals the Abbott RealTime HIV-1 (40 RNA copies/ml) and in 18/108 individuals the Bayer Versant HIV-1 RNA Assay (75 RNA copies/ml) were used. The presented value is thus the limit of detection of the least sensitive assay.
† Data was not available for one non-controller, two ART-suppressed and six elite controllers.