Survival of patients with advanced HIV infection treated with 300 mg/d of zidovudine: a prospective study.

In this prospective study we analyze the long-term survival using 300 mg/day zidovudine (AZT) in patients with advanced forms of human immunodeficiency virus infection. The study is in a private-practice setting, over a 5-year period, and includes 72 patients with advanced human immunodeficiency virus infection (categories C1, 2 or 3). The median survival (SV) is above 60 months (24-months SV 65% and 60-month SV 54%). According to the number of CD4 cells at diagnosis it was found that patients with above or below 200 CD4 T cells had a median SV of above 60 and 18 months (p < 0.001) and a 24-month SV 88 and 45% (p < 0.001); for patients with CD4 cells below 20 at diagnosis, the median survival was even lower (three months) and the 12-month survival less than 18%. It is concluded that the results of treating HIV-infected patients with AZT 300 mg/day are similar to those reported by others using higher doses of AZT. A low dosage is also more easily available to a larger number of HIV-infected individuals.