Journal of AIDS & Clinical Research

Various Immunologic and Virologic Responses to Second line Antiretroviral Therapy in Tambaram, India

Abstract

Ganesh Shanmugasundaram Anusuya, Chandrasekar Chockalingam, Manoharan Gurusamy, Patrick Nadol, Raja Krishnaraj and Ezhil Radhakrishnan

Introduction: We studied the prevalence and associated factors for various immunologic and virologic responses to second line antiretroviral therapy (SLA) in patients enrolled in a government tertiary care hospital in Chennai , India Methods: A cross-sectional study of human immunodeficiency virus patients who have failed first line antiretroviral therapy and subsequently initiated on SLA .Concordant favourable response (CFR) or (CD4+/VL+) was defined as: increase in CD4 count of >=50 cells/mL and achievement of plasma viral load<400 copies/mL after 6 months. Concordant unfavourable response (CUR) or (CD4-/VL-) defined as increase in CD4 count of <50 cells/mL and achievement of plasma viral load>400 copies/mL. Various clinical and demographic factors were analyzed between different response groups using Chi-Square test, t-test, and One way ANOVA Results: From January 2008 to February 2009, 60 patients initiated on SLA. In those 76.7% experienced CD4+/ VL+, 10% CD4+/VL-, 5% CD4-/VL+ and 8.3% CD4-/VL- response. The characteristics of CFR and CUR groups were: 97.8% and 100% males (p- value>0.05), mean baseline CD4 count of 100 and 198 cells/mL (p-value<0.05), mean baseline viral load of 187754 and 265580 copies/mL (p- value>0.05), mean CD4 count at 6 months (313 vs. 147 cells/mL; p-value<0.05), adherence>95% (100% vs. 40%; p-value<0.05). Immunologic only response (CD4+/VL-) was associated with sub optimal adherence. Conclusion: 76.7% of patients after 6 months on SLA indicated CFR and 8.3% experienced CUR. CUR associated with poor adherence.