A blood sample will be taken, stored at a low temperature (4°C) and transported to the certified laboratory within 24 hours. Blood specimens will be tested for sex hormones, biochemical items and syphilis status. Sex hormones (estradiol for females, testosterone for males) will be assayed by direct chemiluminescence using acridinium ester technology. Biochemical items including blood lipid (cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein and high-density) and kidney function (urea, creatinine and uric acid) will be analysed using Combas C702 automatic chemical analyser. The syphilis status will be determined by toluidine red unheated serum tests (TRUST) and Treponema pallidum particle agglutination (TPPA) tests. Laboratory personnel can only see the barcode of each participant during the specimen testing process, so the personal information of participants can be protected. HIV-1 Western Blot Bio-Rad assay (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Redmond, Washington, USA) was used to confirm positive samples.
For OALHIV, the following clinical data will be retrieved from medical records: HIV-related medical history and laboratory testing results (eg, time since HIV diagnosis, duration on ART, viral load, etc), diagnosis of comorbidities (eg, arthritis, heart attack, coronary heart disease, angina, other forms of heart disease, hyperuricaemia, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, any other muscle or bone disease lasting longer than 3 months and chronic airways disease), STIs (eg, syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhoea) and opportunistic infections (eg, herpes zoster, bacterial pneumonia, pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis, oral and oesophageal candidiasis, pneumocystis pneumonia, toxoplasmosis, cryptococcal meningitis, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and Kaposi’s sarcoma).
For OALHIV, the following clinical data will be retrieved from medical records: HIV-related medical history and laboratory testing results (eg, time since HIV diagnosis, duration on ART, viral load, etc), diagnosis of comorbidities (eg, arthritis, heart attack, coronary heart disease, angina, other forms of heart disease, hyperuricaemia, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, any other muscle or bone disease lasting longer than 3 months and chronic airways disease), STIs (eg, syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhoea) and opportunistic infections (eg, herpes zoster, bacterial pneumonia, pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis, oral and oesophageal candidiasis, pneumocystis pneumonia, toxoplasmosis, cryptococcal meningitis, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and Kaposi’s sarcoma).
