title: Early initiation of antiretroviral therapy results in decreased morbidity and mortality among patients with TB and HIV.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The overlapping drug toxicity profiles, drug-drug interactions and complications of management of both HIV and tuberculosis (TB) in patients with advanced HIV have not been fully delineated.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a retrospective chart review of the outcomes of tuberculosis treatment among 69 HIV-infected patients with TB, who were hospitalized in Masih Daneshvari Hospital in Tehran, Iran between 2002 and 2006, and who received standard category 1 (CAT-1) regimens. Group I (N = 47) included those treated from 2002 to 2005 with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) initiated after eight weeks of TB treatment for those whose CD4 count was <200 cells/mm3. Group II (N = 22) included TB patients treated from 2005 to 2006, with HAART initiated after two weeks of TB treatment if their CD4 count was <100 cells/mm3 and eight weeks after initiation of TB treatment for those whose CD4 count was between 101 and 200 cells/mm3.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were no differences between Groups I and II with regard to: adverse drug reactions [four (8.5%) versus two (9%), p = ns]; IRIS [six (12.7%) versus three (10.7%), p = ns]; and new opportunistic infections [eight (17.0%) versus two (9.1%), p = ns]. Death, however, occurred more frequently in Group I than in Group II [13 (27.7%) versus (4.5%), p = 0.03], where HAART was initiated earlier. Injection of drugs was the most common route of HIV transmission in both groups (72.3% in Group I and 77.3% in Group II).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This manuscript shows that in a retrospective review of HIV/TB patients hospitalized in Tehran, improved survival was associated with earlier initiation of antiretroviral therapy in HIV/TB patients with CD4 counts of below 100 cells/mm3.
authors.affiliation: Mycobacteriology Research Center, National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran. tabarsi@nritld.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Payam
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tabarsi
authors.forename: Ali S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Saber-Tehrani
authors.forename: Parvaneh
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Baghaei
authors.forename: Mojgan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Padyab
authors.forename: Davood
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mansouri
authors.forename: Majid
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Amiri
authors.forename: Mohammad Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Masjedi
authors.forename: Frederick L
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Altice