Table 1.
Baseline characteristics of the study participants.
| Clinical characteristics | No-LTEC (n = 9) | LTEC-losing (n = 20) | LTEC-extreme (n = 13) | p-Value* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age (years) | 37 [34–45] | 46 [43–50] | 48 [42–51] | 0.075 |
| Time of control (years) | 2.5 [1.3–3.3] | 13.7 [8.6–17.1] | 14.3 [13.2–15.6] | <0.001 |
| Male | 5 (55.6) | 8 (40) | 9 (69.2) | 0.262 |
| HIV risk factor | 0.141 | |||
| Heterosexual | 6 (66.7) | 6 (30) | 2 (15.4) | |
| Homo/bisexual | 1 (11.1) | 2 (10) | ||
| Intravenous drug abuse | 2 (22.2) | 10 (50) | 10 (76.9) | |
| Other/unknown | 2 (10) | 1 (7.7) | ||
| CD4+ T-cell count (cells/µl) | 724 [430–1029] | 756 [646–1041] | 830 [522–1028] | 0.772 |
| CD4 count slope (cells/month) | – | −0.35 [−1.23 to 0.99] | −1.98 [−2.80 to −1.31] | 0.012 |
| HIV viral load (log) | 1.6 [1.45–1.7] | 1.7 [1.6–1.7] | 1.6 [1.3–1.7] | 0.337 |
| HCV coinfection (positive) | 3 (33.3) | 13 (65) | 13 (100) | 0.003 |
| Active HCV coinfection (positive) | 1 (11.1) | 10 (50) | 10 (77) | 0.010 |
All plasma samples analyzed were obtained before the loss of HIV control (in the case of no-LTEC and LTEC-losing groups) compared to LTEC-extreme. Data are presented as n (%) or median (interquartile range). Categorical data were compared through a χ2 test, whereas continuous data were compared using the non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis test*. (P values < 0.05 in bold).
no-LTEC, no long-term elite controllers; LTEC-losing, long-term elite controllers patients who lost HIV control during follow-up; LTEC-extreme, long-term elite controllers patients maintaining HIV control during the whole follow-up and for more than 10 years.