Severe anemia is an important negative predictor for survival with disseminated Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

Disseminated Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare (MAI) in patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is usually unresponsive to antimycobacterial therapy. We examined clinical and laboratory characteristics of MAI organisms and their relationship to the length of survival. We studied factors influencing survival and compared these in 76 patients with AIDS with and without MAI. Serum levels of p24 antigen and erythropoietin, and CD4-positive helper T-lymphocytes in blood were assessed in 36 additional patients with various clinical stages of HIV infection. In patients with MAI infection, survival was significantly related only to total lymphocyte count, hematocrit, platelet count, and sex. Of these, hematocrit and total lymphocyte count were the only linear predictors of survival. Anemia was significantly more profound in patients with AIDS and MAI than in the other patients. This anemia in patients with MAI could not be ascribed to increased peripheral destruction of red cells, deficient nutritional factors, or erythropoietin production, HIV viral or bacterial load, or a general effect on other blood elements such as neutrophils or platelets. The influence of MAI on survival in patients with AIDS did depend upon whether the MAI occurred as an index infection or was preceded by other opportunistic infections. Patients with other preceding opportunistic infection lived for a much shorter duration from the time of diagnosis of MAI.