Virological failure of staggered and simultaneous treatment interruption in HIV patients who began Efavirenz-based regimens after allergic reactions to nevirapine

Table 1 Baseline demographic and clinical characteristics of eligible HIV-1-infected patients

		EFV-based regimens
	Available data (n)	Simultaneous Interruption^a	Staggered Interruption^b	Controls^c	p value^d
Total number, n	559	161	82	316
Mean age, years (SD)	559	41.8 (8.3)	39.4 (9.4)	43.0 (8.4)	0.003
Female, %	559	39.1	59.8	33.9	<0.001
Mean body weight, kilograms (SD)	556	54.9 (9.2)	54.8 (9.8)	56.9 (12.4)	0.091
History of previous major opportunistic infections, %	556	40.6	35.4	51.9	0.007
History of previous allergic reactions to other drugs (exclude NVP), %	555	32.7	30.9	11.4	<0.001
Median duration of previous NVP-based regimens, days (IQR)	234	14 (11,27)	14 (12, 30)		0.574
Median baseline of CD4 cell count, cells/uL (IQR) ^e	543	69 (24, 140)	90 (26, 167)	47 (13, 132)	0.006
Baseline plasma HIV-1 RNA >100,000 copies/ml, % ^e	258	69.6	77.4	76.0	0.595
Baseline EFV-based regimens
-Once-daily regimen,%	556	0.6	2.5	13.7	<0.001
-OBRs	559
D4T/3TC, %		93	73	58
AZT/3TC, %		6	24	23
TDF/3TC, %			2	11

Note: AZT = Zidovudine; D4T = Stavudine; EFV = Efavirenz; IQR = Interquartile range; NVP = Nevirapine; OBRs = Optimized background regimens; SD = Standard deviation; TDF = Tenofovir; 3TC = Lamivudine.
^aHIV-1-infected patients who simultaneously discontinued all drugs in NVP-based regimens when they experienced allergic reactions to NVP-based regimens.
^bHIV-1-infected patients who discontinued NVP first but continued use of the other NRTIs for a few days when they experienced allergic reactions to NVP-based regimens.
^cHIV-1-infected patients who were naïve to antiretroviral therapy and were never exposed to NVP before beginning EFV-based regimens.
^dp-value represents the difference between the three groups (Simultaneous interruption, Staggered interruption, and Control).
^eThese results would be included if they were examined within 6 months before starting EFV-based regimens.

ISSN: 1742-6405