Body Composition Measurements
Saliva samples were collected to measure Deuterium
enrichment at the 2 and 14 weeks and 6 and 9 month visits
using a standardized operating procedure based on IAEA
guidelines [32]. TBW (total body water) was calculated
from the saliva samples using an FTIR (Fourier transform
Infrared spectroscopy) instrument. Lean body mass (LBM)
is approximately 73.2% of the TBW. Fat mass was cal-
culated as the difference between the body weight and the
LBM.
Data Preparation
Data was entered into an MS Access (MS Office Access
2003) database created for the study and rechecked for any
missing information and entry errors. Mothers and infants
were identified by a unique study ID to maintain
confidentiality.
Disease progression was defined as progression to WHO
stage 3 or higher; a poor Karnofsky score was defined as a
score of 80% or below; and the WHO cutoff of an SRQ20
score of 8 and above (associated with depression) was used
[33].
Statistical Methods
Analysis was conducted using SPSS 15.0 for windows (
SPSS Inc.). Continuous variables were checked for nor-
mality of distribution. Independent t tests and Chi-squared
tests were used to compare the continuous and categorical
variables in the two groups. Non-parametric tests were
conducted for the skewed continuous variables and