BACKGROUND We compared clinical outcomes among HIV-infected participants receiving ART who were randomized to viral load (VL) and CD4 cell count monitoring in comparison to CD4 cell count monitoring alone in Tororo, Uganda. METHODS Beginning in May 2003, participants with CD4 cell counts <250 cells/μL or WHO stage 3 or 4 disease were randomized to clinical monitoring alone, clinical monitorin...

Methods of 1450 patients currently on ART, 504 HIV-1 infected patients with persistently undetectable viral load for 5 or more years (mean = 8±2 years) were selected. Results of plasma viral load (performed by PCR RNA-HIV, Amplicor 1.5®) and CD4 count of all patients obtained every 3 or 6 months were abstracted. The distribution of 5-year CD4 count was described using medians and compared betwe...

INTRODUCTION Due to unavailability of vaccine against HIV/AIDS, there are no ways other than relying on ART. We select group of late stage HIV/AIDS with CD4<50 so that opportunistic infections and outcome of patients in this late stage of severe immunosuppression after initiation of ART can be known METHODS A cross sectional study was carried out in 53 HIV patients with CD4 count <50 cells/cu...

The aim of this study was to determine the clinical, immunological and virological status of newly diagnosed AIDS cases and to monitor their clinical and immunological response to HAART after a minimum period of three months. Forty three drug naive AIDS patients were enrolled. The most common presenting complaints were weight loss (74.4%), cough (72.1%) and diarrhoea (67.4%). Mean baseline CD4 ...

Background.  The primary aim of this study was to determine the impact of regulatory T cells (Tregs) percentage on immune recovery in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients after antiretroviral therapy introduction. Methods.  A 2-year prospective study was conducted in HIV-1 chronically infected naive patients with CD4 count <500 cells/mm(3). Regulatory T cells were identified as ...

The CD4 cell count has become a key laboratory measurement in the management of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease. In ideal situations, HIV-infected persons are followed up longitudinally with serial CD4 cell counts to determine disease progression, risk for opportunistic infection, and the need for prophylactic or therapeutic intervention. However, the use of the CD4 cell count in res...

BACKGROUND The magnitude of the impact of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) since its introduction in non-Western countries is not entirely clear. We studied disease progression among adult patients with advanced human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection in the pre-HAART (i.e., 1996 and earlier) and HAART eras in Hong Kong. METHODS The cohort of patients seen at the Int...

CONTEXT Plasma human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) viral load and CD4+ cell count are used to predict prognosis of persons infected with HIV. However, whether combining these markers improves prognostic accuracy and whether they predict prognosis for injection drug users (IDUs) and nonwhite persons infected with HIV has not been extensively investigated. OBJECTIVE To evaluate plasma v...

BACKGROUND Cryptococcal infection is a frequent cause of mortality in Cambodian HIV-infected patients with CD4+ count ≤100 cells/µl. This study assessed the cost-effectiveness of three strategies for cryptococcosis prevention in HIV-infected patients. METHODS A MARKOV DECISION TREE WAS USED TO COMPARE THE FOLLOWING STRATEGIES AT THE TIME OF HIV DIAGNOSIS: no intervention, one time systematic ...

BACKGROUND Although the kinetics of CD4(+) cell counts have been extensively studied in antiretroviral-naive HIV-infected patients, data on individuals who have failed combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) are lacking. METHODS This analysis was based on the ICONA Foundation Study. Subjects with > or = 1 episode of viral suppression after starting first-line cART were included (n = 3537). ...