Efficacy and safety of artemether-lumefantrine and dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine in the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Kenyan children aged less than five years: results of an open-label, randomized, single-centre study

Table 1 Patient demographics and baseline characteristics

Characteristics	AL dispersible (n = 227)	DP paediatric (n = 227)	p value*
Age (months)	29.6 (15.2)	32.0 (14.9)	0.094
Weight (kg)	12.2 (3.2)	12.3 (3.2)	0.709
Temperature (°C)	38.3 (1.0)	38.3 (2.1)	0.949
Parasite density (/μL), mean (95% CI)^†	38,202.2 (32,180.0 to 45,351.3)	38,545.7 (32,615.8 to 45,553.8)	0.941^‡
Haemoglobin (g/dL)	9.2 (1.9)	9.4 (2.0)	0.293
White blood cells (x10³/μL)	9.9 (4.5)	9.5 (3.8)	0.258
Platelets (x10³/μL)	134.8 (66.1)	134.9 (67.1)	0.988
Red blood cells (x10⁶/μL)	3.7 (0.9)	3.7 (0.8)	0.764
Neutrophils (%)	41.0 (17.5)	43.1 (17.8)	0.203
Lymphocytes (%)	50.6 (17.2)	48.4 (17.5)	0.182
Monocytes (%)	7.4 (3.0)	7.6 (4.9)	0.559

Data are mean (±SD) unless otherwise specified. AL: Artemether-lumefantrine; DP: dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine; *p value from t-test or Mann–Whitney test; ^†Geometric mean with its 95% CI; ^‡p value from t-test on the log parasite density.