The clinical benefits of antiretroviral therapy in severely immunocompromised HIV-1-infected patients with and without complete viral suppression.

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to determine whether there is a protective effect of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) on the development of clinical events in patients with ongoing severe immunosuppression.

METHODS

A total of 3,780 patients from the EuroSIDA study under follow-up after 2001 with a current CD4(+) T-cell count ≤200 cells/mm(3) were stratified into five groups: group 1, viral load (VL)<50 copies/ml on cART; group 2, VL 50-99,999 copies/ml on cART; group 3, VL 50-99,999 copies/ml off cART; group 4, VL≥100,000 copies/ml on cART; and group 5, VL≥100,000 copies/ml off cART. Poisson regression was used to identify the risk of (non-fatal or fatal) AIDS- and non-AIDS-related events considered together (AIDS/non-AIDS) or separately as AIDS or non-AIDS events within each group.

RESULTS

There were 428 AIDS/non-AIDS events during 3,780 person-years of follow-up. Compared with group 1, those in group 2 had a similar incidence of AIDS/non-AIDS events (incidence rate ratio [IRR] 1.04; 95% CI 0.79-1.36). Groups 3, 4 and 5 had significantly higher incidence rates of AIDS/non-AIDS events compared with group 1; incidence rates increased from group 3 (IRR 1.78; 95% CI 1.25-2.55) to group 5 (IRR 2.36; 95% CI 1.66-3.40), demonstrating the increased incidence of AIDS/non-AIDS events associated with increasing viraemia. After adjustment, the use of cART was associated with a 40% reduction in the incidence of AIDS/non-AIDS events in patients with VL 50-99,999 copies/ml (IRR 0.59; 95% CI 0.41-0.85) and in those with a VL>100,000 copies/ml (IRR 0.66; 95% CI 0.44-1.00). Similar relationships were seen for non-AIDS events and AIDS events when considered separately.

CONCLUSIONS

In patients with ongoing severe immunosuppression, cART was associated with significant clinical benefits in patients with suboptimal virological control or virological failure.