Total Bilirubin and LDH enzyme levels for liver functioning in HIV positive patients

Impaired biliary excretion may manifest as an elevation of bilirubin and may help as a diagnostic indicator in HIV positive patients and may help in management of patients infected with HIV. This study was conducted in the Department of Medical Biochemistry, Government Medical College, Aurangabad, Maharashtra. 40 HIV positive and 40 Healthy HIV negative patients were included in the study. The biochemical investigations were performed by end point (Walter and Gerald) method for serum total bilirubin and enzymatic method (Henry et al.,) for serum LDH. Mean age of control group was 35.17 years (22-53 years) and of the HIV positive group was 34.65 years (22-55 years). Mean [+ or -] SD values of total Bilirubin 1.17 [+ or -] 0.87 (p < 0.05) and LDH 275.67 [+ or -] 79.3 (p < 0.01) were found to be increased in HIV positive patients. The presence of a marked elevation of serum total bilirubin and LDH may serve as a prognostic indicators, since HIV positive patients with highly elevated levels of these parameters had a poor prognosis. It helps to identify patients requiring further investigations such as USG, liver biopsy and ERCP HIV positive patients with predominantly elevated serum total bilirubin and LDH levels should undergo further investigations, thereby leading to a diagnosis of particular infecting organisms. It could be concluded that serum bilirubin and LDH levels may be useful parameters in diagnostic workup and may help in management of HIV positive patients.