Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers of iron status are associated with CSF viral load, antiretroviral therapy, and demographic factors in HIV-infected adults

Table 1 Summary of demographic and HIV disease characteristics of CHARTER study participants at baseline (entry) whose iron biomarkers were measured

Variable at baseline visit	All participants N = 403
Age (years), median (IQR)	43 (39, 49)
Sex (N, % women)	78 (19)
Race/ethnicity by self-report (N, %)
Non-Hispanic Black	174 (43.2)
Non-Hispanic White	178 (44.2)
Hispanic	42 (10.4)
Other	9 (2.2)
Estimated duration of HIV infection (months), median (IQR)	118 (57, 183)
Nadir CD4+ T-cell count, median (IQR)	180 (56, 315)
AIDS status (N, %)	245 (61)
Virus detectability in plasma (N, % >LLQ)	215 (54)
Virus detectability in CSF (N, % >LLQ)	126 (31)^a
CSF VL (log₁₀ HIV RNA copies/mL), median (IQR)	1.7 (1.7, 2.2)^a
ZDV use (N, % yes)	79 (20)
Comorbidity (% mild to moderate)	134 (33)
Current alcohol abuse (N, % yes)	10 (2.5)
Hemoglobin, mean ± SD	14.1 ± 1.5
Anemia (N, %)	54 (14)
CSF iron (µg/dL), median (IQR)^b	3.1 (1.6, 5.7)
CSF transferrin (µg/mL), median (IQR)^b	17.2 (10.3, 27.6)
CSF ferritin (ng/mL), median (IQR)^b	2.7 (1.4, 4.2)

IQR interquartile range, LLQ lower limit of quantitation, CSF cerebrospinal fluid, VL viral load (HIV RNA), ZDV zidovudine, SD standard deviation, µg/ng//dL/mL micrograms or nanograms per deciliter or milliliter
^aThree individuals did not have CSF viral load measurements
^bValues of zero for iron biomarkers were at or below the lower limit of detection of the assay

ISSN: 2045-8118