Variability Of Iron Metabolism During Pregnancy In Women With HIV On Antiretroviral Therapy In Abidjan Cote dIvoire

ABSTRACT - OBJECTIVES The aim of this study is to evaluate and characterize the iron metabolism in women during pregnancy living with HIV and following antiretroviral therapy. METHODOLOGY In this context 140 HIV positive pregnant women followed at the Integrated Centre for Bioclinical Research of Abidjan were enrolled. Their average age was 34.7 0.5 years ranging from 18 to 45 years. Blood samples in tubes with anticoagulant and dry tubes were performed in each of selected women. Assays were carried out to determine assessment biological parameters of iron status. Programs Statistica Statsoft Windows version 7.1 and R 2.0.1 version Windows were used for statistical analyzes of data. The level of significance was defined for a p value 0.05. RESULTS The results of our investigations showed heterogeneity of all biological parameters except haematological indicators. In addition evaluation of the biological parameters reported that 100 of women in the first trimester of pregnancy showed an abnormal iron status. This abnormal status consisted of iron deficiency iron deficiency anaemia and inflammatory anaemia. This type of anaemia was highly observed with 90 in early of pregnancy 80 in second and third trimesters of pregnancy respectively. This anaemia has been associated with evolutive stages of immunosuppression. However no inflammatory anaemia associated with iron deficiency has been reported in subjects during pregnancy. CONCLUSION In total our observations indicated that iron metabolism was strongly altered during pregnancy among women infected with HIV.