Background: Pre-existing kidney disease in HIV-infected patients may necessitate dose modification of antiretroviral therapy (ART). Despite increasing ART availability, there are few prevalence studies of chronic kidney disease in HIV-infected individuals across multiple African countries.
Methods: Routine laboratory data obtained before ART initiation were used to evaluate prevalence and predictors of decreased creatinine clearance (CrCl) in participants of the MTCT-Plus Initiative from 7 sub-Saharan countries. Cockcroft-Gault equation was used to estimate CrCl and logistic regression modeling to identify factors associated with CrCl <50 mL/min.
Results: Of 2495 individuals evaluated, median age was 30 years (interquartile range: 27-35); 70% were women. Median CD4+ cell count was 295 (interquartile range: 173-450); 78% were World Health Organization stage 1/2. Median CrCl was 95 mL/min. Overall, 3.4% [95% confidence interval (CI): 2.7 to 4.1] of patients had a CrCl <50 mL/min. Age >30 years (odds ratio = 2.06; 95% CI: 1.23 to 3.45) and CD4+ count <50 cells per cubic millimeter (odds ratio = 5.4 for CD4+ <50, 95% CI: 2.5 to 11.9) were associated with CrCl <50 mL/min.
Conclusions: The prevalence of clinically significant kidney disease was low in this relatively healthy population of HIV-infected adults, and few participants would have required ART dose reductions. These findings support recent World Health Organization guidelines to initiate ART without routine laboratory screening. Our findings suggest that available laboratory resources could be targeted to older persons and those with very low CD4+ cell count.