Background: A valid scienti\ufb01c evaluation of the e\ufb03cacy of
HIV vaccines or antiretroviral drugs includes measurement of changes in
physiological parameters of subjects from known established baseline
reference ranges. This study was designed to establish reference ranges
for biochemical parameters among healthy adult Cameroonians to support
planned HIV Vaccine clinical trials and scaling up of ARV drugs among
AIDS patients. Methods: After informed consent, blood and urine samples
were collected from a total of 576 adult Cameroonians and analyzed for
the presence of underlying pathologies that may a\ufb00ect
biochemical parameters. Samples from 501 of them were found eligible
for the determination of reference biochemical parameters. After
complete assay, the data were subjected to both parametric and non
parametric statistics for analyses with 2.5 and 97.5 percentiles
considered as the lower and upper limits of reference ranges. Results:
There were 331 (66.1%) males and 170 (33.9) females, with 359 (71.7%)
and 142 (28.3%) of them residing in the urban and rural areas
respectively. Statistically signi\ufb01cant di\ufb00erences
(P<0.05) were observed in the following biochemical parameters
between urban and rural participants: AST, ALT, alkaline phosphatase,
creatinine, total protein, albumin, triglyceride, total cholesterol,
and the bilirubins. When the data were regrouped into sex, there were
statistically signi\ufb01cant di\ufb00erences (P<0.05) in the
following parameters between males and females: AST, ALT, creatinine,
albumin, triglyceride, total cholesterol, and direct bilirubin.
Conclusion: The present study shows that sex and geographic location
have signi\ufb01cant impact on reference physiological biochemical
parameters of healthy, adult Cameroonians; hence this should be taken
into consideration when monitoring participants either during HIV
Vaccine clinical trials or on antiretroviral (ARV) drugs treatment