title: Do dual nucleoside regimens have a role in an era of plasma viral load-driven antiretroviral therapy?
abstract: This study was undertaken to characterize predictors of response to double nucleoside combinations among 245 human immunodeficiency virus-infected persons initiating antiretroviral therapy. The median time for receiving antiretroviral therapy in this group was 6 months, and the plasma virus load was 58,000 copies/mL. The most commonly prescribed regimens were zidovudine/lamivudine (154 subjects, 63%) and stavudine/lamivudine (46 subjects, 19%). A total of 96 (39%) subjects had their virus load decrease to < 500 copies/mL after the initiation of therapy. Of the 245 study subjects, 102 (41.6%) had > or = 5 months of follow-up and two or more consecutive virus load determinations performed after the start of antiretroviral therapy. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that baseline virus load was the only significant factor associated with obtaining two or more plasma virus loads of < 500 copies/mL. Overall, these data demonstrate that dual nucleoside therapy (using currently licensed agents) cannot reliably achieve a high level of suppression of plasma virus load.
authors.affiliation: British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Rhone
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Hogg
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yip
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sherlock
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Conway
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Schechter
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: O'Shaughnessy
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Montaner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D019380:Anti-HIV Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015224:Dideoxynucleosides / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D018450:Disease Progression; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006678:HIV; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018894:Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D019562:Viral Load
chemical_list: D019380:Anti-HIV Agents; D015224:Dideoxynucleosides; D018894:Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors