Mesalazine in the initial management of severely acutely malnourished children with environmental enteric dysfunction: a pilot randomized controlled trial

Table 1 Baseline characteristics

Baseline characteristics	Mesalazine arm	Placebo arm
Number enrolled	22	22
Age (months)	19 (14 to 32)	19 (15 to 29)
Sex: Male	10 (45)	11 (50)
Female	12 (55)	11 (50)
Household income category (USD/day)^a	$2 to $4	$2 to $4
Number of people living in the house	5 (4 to 7)	5 (4 to 5)
Access to improved drinking water source^b	100%	100%
Access to improved toilet facility	50%	41%
MUAC (cm)	12.9 (11.2 to 14.4)	12.7 (11.2 to 13.8)
Height-for-age z-score	-3.13 (-3.83 to -2.71)	-3.73 (-4.60 to -2.81)
Nutritional edema	15 (68)	17 (77)
Current breastfeeding^c	11 (50)	5 (23)
Symptoms: Fever	10 (45)	8 (36)
Cough	9 (41)	6 (27)
Diarrhea	5 (23)	5 (23)
Biochemistry: Creatinine (umol/L)	18 (17 to 23)	19 (17 to 22)
AST (IU/L)	37 (27 to 52)	40 (32 to 49)
ALT (IU/L)	24 (12 to 31)	17 (15 to 30)
CRP (mg/L)	6.0 (1.3 to 10.8)	6.8 (1.6 to 42.2)
Hematology: Hemoglobin (g/dL)	10.3 (7.9 to11.2)	9.6 (8.2 to 10.6)
WBC count (x 10⁹/L)	12.0 (9.9 to 15.1)	11.8 (9.3 to 13.6)
Platelet count (x 10⁹/L)	555 (423 to 666)	536 (282 to 692)
ESR (mm/hour)	32 (24 to 38)	33 (28 to 44)

^aMedian and IQR for both arms all fell within the $2 to $4 category. ^bMostly communal taps from which water must be purchased. Lack of resources was reported to limit access. ^c P = 0.06. Data are medians (inter-quartile range) or numbers (%). ALT, alanine transaminase; AST, aspartate aminotransferase; CRP, C-reactive protein; ESR, erythrocyte sedimentation rate; MUAC, mid-upper arm circumference; WBC, white blood cell.