title: Saquinavir hard gel suppresses viral load insufficiently in HIV-infected patients naive to anti-retroviral therapy: a retrospective cohort study.
abstract: Protease inhibitors are important components in anti-retroviral regimens. In this retrospective study 29 HIV-infected patients treated with a regimen of zidovudine, lamivudine and saquinavir hard gel in 1 centre in Denmark were compared with 58 patients treated with zidovudine, lamivudine and ritonavir or indinavir followed at 5 other centres in Scandinavia. All patients were naive to anti-retroviral therapy prior to institution of the actual anti-retroviral regimen and were followed for a median of 1.3 and 1.4 y respectively. The 2 groups did not differ significantly with respect to age, gender, route of infection, ethnic background, viral load, CD4 count, AIDS at baseline or frequency of clinical controls. Six and 12 months after initiating anti-retroviral therapy, 31% and 34% of the patients on the saquinavir regimen obtained HIV-RNA < or = 500 compared with 76% and 73% in the control group (p < 0.001). In contrast to viral load, the increase in CD4 count did not differ significantly between the 2 groups. In conclusion, we found that with respect to suppression of viral load a regimen of saquinavir, zidovudine and lamivudine seemed to be inferior to a regimen of zidovudine, lamivudine and ritonavir or indinavir.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases, Marselisborg Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jensen-Fangel
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kirk
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Larsen
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Blaxhult
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gerstoft
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pedersen
authors.forename: F T
authors.initials: FT
authors.lastname: Black
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Lundgren
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Obel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D019380:Anti-HIV Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count / Q000187:drug effects; D018849:Controlled Clinical Trials as Topic; D003718:Denmark; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology; D017320:HIV Protease Inhibitors / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D019469:Indinavir / Q000627:therapeutic use; D019259:Lamivudine / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008297:Male; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000187:drug effects; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D019438:Ritonavir / Q000627:therapeutic use; D019258:Saquinavir / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D019562:Viral Load; D015215:Zidovudine / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D019380:Anti-HIV Agents; D017320:HIV Protease Inhibitors; D012367:RNA, Viral; D019259:Lamivudine; D015215:Zidovudine; D019469:Indinavir; D019258:Saquinavir; D019438:Ritonavir