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Original Research Communications |
| ABSTRACT |
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Objectives: Our objectives were to 1) compare the fat-free mass (FFM) of children with HIV infection with that of control children, 2) assess the contribution of FFM to body weight in HIV-infected children compared with that of control children, and 3) study the relations between body weight, FFM, and mortality.
Design: A cross-sectional study was performed in 86 HIV-infected and 113 uninfected children (mean ages: 6.9 and 7.7 y, respectively). FFM was estimated from single-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis by using 3 different published equations; a further estimate was obtained from triceps-skinfold-thickness measurements.
Results: All 4 estimates of body composition showed that FFM in HIV-infected children was significantly less than in control children of similar age. However, FFM as a percentage of body weight was not significantly different between groups. In the whole group of infected children, an age-specific z score <-2 for weight and for FFM was significantly associated with an increased risk of death [relative risk (95% CI) = 11.4 (3.1, 41.0) and 5.1 (1.5, 18.2), respectively]; when only children with more severe disease were considered, only z score for weight was significantly associated with an increased risk [4.6 (1.4, 14.9)].
Conclusions: These findings suggest that no preferential catabolism of FFM occurs in HIV-infected children and that body weight for age is a better prognostic indicator than is FFM estimated by bioelectrical impedance analysis.
Key Words: HIV human immunodeficiency virus acquired immune deficiency syndrome AIDS body composition bioelectrical impedance analysis children malnutrition prognosis survival cachexia wasting syndrome fat-free mass lean body mass
| INTRODUCTION |
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On the contrary, Sharpstone et al (5), using whole-body dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry in adult, HIV-infected asymptomatic men, found that fat mass was the most severely affected body compartment, FFM being apparently increased. More recently, Paton et al (6), using 4 different techniques, found that the weight loss of a group of adult patients with symptomatic HIV infection was not due to excessive FFM catabolism, but was compatible with undernutrition.
Assessment of FFM in HIV-infected patients might prove useful in predicting survival (7), in clinical staging (8), and in evaluating responses to both nutritional and pharmacologic interventions (9, 10). BIA is a safe, noninvasive, and inexpensive technique for estimating FFM in children. Its ability to predict FFM has been confirmed in adults with AIDS (11). The aim of this work was to study FFM in a large group of HIV-infected children and its correlation with the different stages of illness and with survival.
| SUBJECTS AND METHODS |
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The characteristics of the children studied according to CDC classification criteria are given in Table 1
. The clinical categories are as follows: N, asymptomatic; A, B, and C, mildly, moderately, and severely symptomatic, respectively.
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All measurements were performed in the morning after the children fasted overnight. Weight (to the nearest 0.1 kg), standing height (0.1 cm), nondominant upper arm circumference (0.1 cm), and triceps skinfold thickness (0.1 mm) were measured by the same operator using standard techniques (12, 13). BIA was performed with a tetrapolar bioelectrical analyzer (model Human HI-Scan; Dietosystem, Milan, Italy) after the children voided and rested in bed for 15 min; electrodes were placed as recommended by the manufacturer and a standard, 800-µA, 50-kHz oscillating current was applied.
Upper arm area and upper arm muscle area were derived from measurements of arm circumference and triceps skinfold thickness as described by Frisancho (13). To predict FFM (in kg) from BIA measurements, the following published equations for children were selected:Goran et al (14):
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Houtkooper et al (15):
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Arpadi et al (16):
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)], wt is weight (kg), A is age (y), and G is sex (0 for females and 1 for males). To allow comparison of patients of different age groups because body composition is known to change with age (though these differences were not statistically significant), standardized differences from the age-specific means were calculated [z score = (patient's value - age-specific mean)/age-specific SD]. The EPI-INFO software package (CDC, Atlanta) was used to calculate weight-for-age and height-for-age z scores (WAZ and HAZ, respectively). To calculate z scores of FFM, control children were divided in 3-y age groups (03, 36, 69, 912, and 1215 y), the mean and SD of the appropriate age group was then used to calculate the FFM z score of an individual patient. To test for accuracy, this procedure was also applied to 37 children with nonorganic recurrent abdominal pain (age range: 3.412.8 y); mean values between 0.08 and -0.03 were obtained for the z scores of different estimates of FFM, and the corresponding SDs ranged between 0.97 and 1.12.
All statistical analyses were performed by using the STATGRAPHICS software package (version 6.0; Manugistics, Inc, Rockville, MD). Categorical variables were compared by using the chi-square test. Continuous variables were compared with one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) after confirming their normal distribution by standardized coefficients of skewness and kurtosis within the range of -2 to 2. When the ANOVA F ratio was statistically significant, a post hoc multiple range analysis was performed by using Tukey's test to compare infected children in different clinical categories and control children. Scheffe's method was used to test the difference between control children and the whole group of HIV-infected children.
With the above sample size and a type I error fixed at 0.05, the study had a probability of
0.80 of detecting a 10% difference between HIV-infected and control children for weight and FFM (type II error = 0.20). Survival probabilities were estimated with the Kaplan-Meier product-limit procedure; survival rates were compared with the log-rank test.
| RESULTS |
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| DISCUSSION |
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We selected 2 equations developed in healthy, white children. The equation of Goran et al was developed from that of Kushner et al (17) divided by an age- and sex-related constant for the hydration of FFM; the final equation was further validated in 2 different groups of healthy children by measuring 18O dilution space (14). More recently, Reilly et al (18) addressed the ability of 4 published equations to estimate FFM from BIA in a group of healthy prepubertal British children using hydrodensitometry as the reference method; only the equation of Houtkooper et al (15) predicted FFM with negligible bias. The third equation we selected was developed by Arpadi et al (16) in a group of 20 nonwhite HIV-infected children with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry as the reference method; to our knowledge, this is the only published equation developed in HIV-infected children. Its applicability to healthy children has not yet been assessed.
These 3 equations use very different subsets of variables to predict FFM. As expected, different equations provided different estimates of FFM in healthy as well as in HIV-infected children, but discussing these differences is beyond the scope of the present work. However, bearing in mind the need to develop and validate specific prediction equations for white, HIV-infected children (and possibly for children in different clinical categories), our study found remarkably similar figures for FFM, both as absolute values and as percentages of body weight, with the equations of Arpadi et al and Houtkooper et al. In addition, trends in results were observed irrespective of the predictive equation chosen. Moreover, these results are consistent with data from skinfold-thickness measurements, a completely different technique. These findings strongly suggest that a low FFM is common in HIV-infected children belonging to clinical categories B and C (moderately and severely symptomatic), but not in children with no or mild symptoms (categories N and A).
In contrast, loss of body cell mass was found to occur even in otherwise symptomless adult patients (3). Differences in classification criteria may partly explain differences between our asymptomatic pediatric patients and adult patients in other studies, or it is possible that subtle differences in body cell mass are not observed when FFM is estimated by BIA. No other body-composition data are available in asymptomatic children.
The degree of FFM loss was found to be related to the time of death from AIDS in adults (7). McKinney et al (19) retrospectively assessed data from children with severe HIV infection enrolled in a clinical trial of oral zidovudine therapy; they found that a WAZ <-2 was associated with a relative risk of death of 1.53. We found such a WAZ to be associated with remarkably higher relative risks of death (11.4 for the whole group of HIV-infected children and 4.6 for children in category C). Besides different selection criteria (mainly age and disease severity) and possible differences in prognostic indicators derived from small numbers of patients, the very much higher mortality rate observed in that study (49% compared with 26% in our patients) could account for these differences.
An FFM z score <-2 (which indicates an FFM below the 3rd percentile of our control children) seemed to have a weaker association with the risk of death than did WAZ. In our study, lower FFM grossly reflected the reduction of body weight and, as a result, the percentage of body weight provided by FFM (body composition, strictly speaking) was not different either between healthy and HIV-infected children, or among children in different clinical categories. This finding suggests that differences in fat mass and FFM could both contribute in similar proportion to body weight differences in HIV-infected children. Reduced energy intake was reported previously in these children (20) and could account for a loss of body fat as an initial response to starvation. On the other hand, reduced FFM could result either from long-lasting semistarvation or from preferential and inappropriate catabolism of muscle mass, as seen in cachexia. Miller et al (4) reported a selective reduction of muscle mass, as measured by arm muscle circumference, in HIV-infected children <2 y of age with apparently no changes in fat mass. The children we studied were older, and from our data it is difficult to state whether changes in fat mass preceded the changes in FFM or, on the contrary, both processes proceeded together.
Also, in adult patients it was recently shown that the relative contribution of FFM loss to weight loss, as estimated by several different techniques, is
60% (6), which suggests that the weight loss is neither catabolic nor cachectic. Neither the results of our study nor these observations support the hypothesis of disproportionate catabolism of FFM.
Obviously, all cross-sectional studies are potentially biased by early mortality. Because 26% of HIV-infected children are estimated to die before the age of 6 y and an estimated 21% of children die within 1 mo of developing a category C illness (21), underrepresentation of children with both asymptomatic and early-onset symptomatic disease is likely to occur in cross-sectional studies. The question of whether the body-composition changes of these children are similar to those of other HIV-infected children who are in other cross-sectional studies is still unanswered.
Further studies, mainly longitudinal cohort studies, are needed to precisely describe the time course of body-composition changes in HIV-infected children. Nevertheless, the whole-body data from our study show that there is no apparent, preferential reduction in FFM in HIV-infected children by the age of 7 y. This suggests that poor energy intake could be the main cause of their weight loss or growth faltering. If confirmed, these results could advocate for vigorous nutritional support, either enteral or parenteral, early in the course of the disease.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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2 Supported by grant 9401-19 from the Ninth Research Project on AIDS of the Italian Health Ministry.
3 Address reprint requests to M Fontana, Clinica Pediatrica 4, via Grassi 74, 20157 Milano, Italy. E-mail: fontana{at}imiucca.csi.unimi.it.
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