A Cross-sectional Study on Faecal Calprotectin Levels on 2-18 Years old HIV-Infected and Healthy Children in Surabaya, Indonesia

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Gastrointestinal manifestation is the most common complication in HIV-infected patient especially enteropathy. Faecal calprotectin is applicable to gut inflammatory biomarker in general population while the sensitivity in HIV-infected patient is remained unknown. This cross-sectional study evaluated between HIV-infected children and control group with the age of 2-18 years old in Dr. Soetomo General Hospital, Surabaya, Indonesia, 19 and 27 samples respectively. This study conducted with collecting stool sample from previous randomized controlled trial using Epitope Cat. No. 30356. The data analysed using Mann-Whitney as non-parametric test and significant with p-value < 0.05. Most of the HIV infected patients are on 1st therapy regimen (78.9%) and all of them are on therapy more than 1 year duration. The mean and standard deviation of the concentration of CD4, percentage of CD4, and ratio of CD4/CD8 were 1,042.47 ± 450.38, 26.01 ± 9.24, and 0.71 ± 0.43, respectively. The median faecal calprotectin level in the HIV-infected group was 63.50 ng/ml (IQR: 21.50 – 203.50), compared to 17.00 ng/ml (IQR: 13.00 – 33.00) (p = 0.004). Faecal calprotectin is significantly higher in HIV-infected patients compared to the control group. Hence, faecal calprotectin can be used as a gut inflammatory biomarker especially in HIV-infected patients.