1. Long-term increase in CD4+ T-cell counts during combination antiretroviral therapy for HIV-1 infection
- Author
-
Michael Hughes, Ann C. Collier, Gregory K. Robbins, Ronald J. Bosch, Constance A. Benson, Robert W. Shafer, and Judith J. Lok
- Subjects
Adult ,CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Time Factors ,medicine.medical_treatment ,Immunology ,HIV Infections ,Article ,law.invention ,Pharmacotherapy ,Randomized controlled trial ,law ,Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active ,Internal medicine ,medicine ,Humans ,Immunology and Allergy ,Sida ,Chemotherapy ,biology ,business.industry ,Viral Load ,biology.organism_classification ,United States ,CD4 Lymphocyte Count ,Surgery ,Clinical trial ,Infectious Diseases ,Censoring (clinical trials) ,Practice Guidelines as Topic ,HIV-1 ,Population study ,Drug Therapy, Combination ,Female ,business ,Viral load - Abstract
Objective: To inform guidelines concerning when to initiate combination antiretroviral therapy (ART), we investigated whether CD4 + T-cell counts (CD4 cell counts) continue to increase over long periods of time on ART. Losses-to-follow-up and some patients discontinuing ART at higher CD4 cell counts hamper such evaluation, but novel statistical methods can help address these issues. We estimated the long-term CD4 cell count trajectory accounting for losses-to-follow-up and treatment discontinuations. Design: The study population included 898 US patients first initiating ART in a randomized trial (AIDS Clinical Trials Group 384); 575 were subsequently prospectively followed in an observational study (AIDS Clinical Trials Group Longitudinal Linked Randomized Trials). Methods: Inverse probability of censoring weighting statistical methods were used to estimate the CD4 cell count trajectory accounting for losses-to-follow-up and ART discontinuations, overall and for pretreatment CD4 cell count categories (≤200, 201-350, 351-500, and >500 cells/μl). Results: Median CD4 cell count increased from 270 cells/μl pre-ART to an estimated 556 cells/μl at 3 and 532 cells/μl at 7 years after starting ART in analyses ignoring treatment discontinuations, and to 570 and 640 cells/μl, respectively, had all patients continued ART. However, even had ART been continued, an estimated 25, 9, 3, and 2% of patients with pretreatment CD4 cell counts of 200 or less, 201-350, 351-500, and more than 500 cells/μl would have had CD4 cell counts of 350 cells/μl or less after 7 years. Conclusion: If patients remain on ART, CD4 cell counts increase in most patients for at least 7 years. However, the substantial percentage of patients starting therapy at low CD4 cell counts who still had low CD4 cell counts after 7 years provides support for ART initiation at higher CD4 cell counts.
- Published
- 2010