Survival of patients with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome after development of cytomegalovirus retinopathy. UCLA CMV Retinopathy Study Group.

To study the survival of patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) who develop cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinopathy, the medical records of 100 consecutive patients with AIDS and CMV retinopathy were reviewed Data of AIDS diagnosis, CMV retinopathy diagnosis, and death were determined for each patient. The median interval from CMV retinopathy diagnosis to death for patients whose infection was diagnosed between May 1984 and September 1987 was 5 months. The interval had increased significantly since 1981. The interval from AIDS diagnosis to CMV retinopathy diagnosis (median, 9 months) did not increase. Based on extent and location of retinal lesions at the time patients were first examined, increased survival could not be attributed to earlier diagnosis of CMV retinopathy. Patients treated with ganciclovir lived longer after diagnosis of CMV retinopathy (median, 7 months) than untreated patients (median, 2 months; P less than 0.001). Although this finding suggests that ganciclovir may prolong survival, the effect of treatment cannot be established conclusively because patients were not randomly assigned to treatment or no treatment groups. The location of retinal lesions had no apparent prognostic significance for survival. Survival after diagnosis of AIDS was significantly shorter if CMV retinopathy was the initial manifestation of the syndrome.