Lamivudine in combination with zidovudine, stavudine, or didanosine in patients with HIV-1 infection. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Objective: To study the antiviral activity of lamivudine (3TC) plus zidovudine (ZDV), didanosine (ddI), or stavudine (d4T). Design: Randomized, placebo-controlled, partially double-blinded multicenter study. Setting: Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Units. Patients: Treatment-naive HIV-infected adults with 200–600 × 10 CD4 T lymphocytes/l. Interventions: Patients were openly randomized to a d4T or a ddI limb, then randomized in a blinded manner to receive: d4T (80 mg/day), d4T plus 3TC (300 mg/day), or ZDV (600 mg/day) plus 3TC, with matching placebos; or ddI (400 mg/day), ddI plus 3TC (300 mg/day), or ZDV (600 mg/day) plus 3TC, with matching placebos. After 24 weeks 3TC was added for patients assigned to the monotherapy arms. Main outcome measure: The reduction in plasma HIV-1 RNA level at weeks 24 and 48.