title: Mean corpuscular volume (MCV) values reflect therapeutic effectiveness in zidovudine-receiving HIV patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  An increase of the mean corpuscular volume (MCV) of erythrocytes and alterations in the lipid profiles have been described in HIV-infected patients under combination of anti-retroviral treatment (cART), particularly zidovudine (AZT).
  
  
  METHODS
  In 687 sera from 179 HIV-positive patients, MCV levels were correlated with the clinical outcome or therapeutic effectiveness. The sera were classified into three groups according to AZT treatment; cART with AZT (n = 317), cART without AZT (n = 262), and no anti-retroviral therapy (n = 108).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The MCV and lipid profile values were increased after cART. The AZT-based cART group had higher MCV levels (111.6 ± 7.0 vs. 97.8 ± 7.0 fl, P < 0.001) and a higher incidence of macrocytosis (>99 fl; 95.3% vs. 38.2%, P < 0.001) than the non-AZT-based cART group. The receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that the area under the curve was 0.835 and the cut-off of MCV (>102 fl) had a sensitivity of 96.1% and specificity of 66.7% for detecting HIV-RNA (-) sera in AZT-based cART group. In the multivariate regression analysis, HIV-viral load and HDL-cholesterol were the only significant correlates to the MCV values in the AZT-base cART group (P < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The MCV values could be used as a surrogate marker to monitor the clinical outcome of HIV-infected patients receiving AZT-based cART.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Ah Hyun
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Woori
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.forename: Yonggoo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Yeon-Joon
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Kyungja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Eun-Jee
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Oh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000748:Anemia, Macrocytic / Q000175:diagnosis*; D019380:Anti-HIV Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology; D008076:Cholesterol, HDL / Q000097:blood; D008078:Cholesterol, LDL / Q000097:blood; D004909:Erythrocyte Indices; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000097:blood* / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000097:blood; D018894:Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D019562:Viral Load; D055815:Young Adult; D015215:Zidovudine / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D019380:Anti-HIV Agents; D008076:Cholesterol, HDL; D008078:Cholesterol, LDL; D012367:RNA, Viral; D018894:Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors; D015215:Zidovudine
keywords: HIV; HIV-RNA; MCV; macrocytosis; zidovudine
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