Internal Medicine & Patient Care

Biography

The writer is a final year medical student who has completed his clerkship in Faculty of Medicine,

Diponegoro University, Indonesia. In this project, he was supervised by Dr. Muchlis Sofro from Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Diponegoro University/Dr Kariadi General Hospital.

 

Abstract

Background: The administration of Zidovudine (ZDV) has an important role in decreasing the number of mortality on HIV/AIDS patients, despite the side effect of anaemia. The incidence of anaemia can be influenced by several factors, e.g. age, sex, duration of treatment, CD4 count, and ALT level.

Methods: This research is an analytic observational with cohort-retrospective method used. The study was taken in VCT Clinic, Dr. Kariadi General Hospital Semarang. The data was collated among HIV/AIDS patients’ medical records from April 2014 to May 2015. 70 out of over 300 patients on Zidovudine were eligible: 35 belonged to case group, the other 35 as control. The data was analyzed by Chi-square and Fischer test.

Results: The average age of patients with and without anaemia in this study are 33.65 years old and 38.02 years old, respectively. However, age did not have any significant relation with the incidence of anaemia (p=0.075). A statistically significant relation was shown between sex and incidences of anaemia (p=0.027); indicated by 18 female HIV/AIDS patients (51.4%) suffered from anaemia. Duration of treatment (2.1 months average) was the most influential factor towards occurrences of anaemia (p=0.000). No significant relationship between low CD4 count (< 200 cells/mm³) and ALT level to the occurrence of anaemia (p=0.055 and p=1.000 respectively).

Conclusion: The incidence of anaemia on HIV/AIDS patients from Dr. Kariadi General Hospital Semarang is related to sex (gender) and duration of treatment as the influencing factors; Age, CD4 count, and ALT level do not appear to have any significant relation with it in response to the administration of Zidovudine.