via aidsmap, by Michael Carter
New UK research provides further evidence of the dramatic impact of antiretroviral therapy on the prognosis of HIV-positive patients. Published in the online edition of AIDS, a simulated model showed that a non-smoking, 30-year-old gay man, whose HIV is diagnosed promptly, could expect to live until he is 78 years of age. A gay man who smoked, but whose HIV was detected early, had a life expectancy of 75 years.
“Predicted life expectancy in people with HIV is high in settings with access to multiple antiretroviral drugs,” comment the investigators. “Delays in diagnosis pose the greatest risk of excess mortality for people with HIV.”
It is now well established that modern antiretroviral therapy significantly improves the life expectancy of patients with HIV. However, investigators from the UK were concerned that studies attempting to quantify prognosis may have underestimated the benefits of treatment because they did not take into account improvements in HIV therapy and care.
They therefore developed their own prognostic model. It was based on 10,000 theoretical gay men whose HIV was diagnosed in 2010. They selected this group because factors other than HIV impact on the prognosis of the other main groups affected by HIV in the UK.
Rates of HIV testing currently observed in UK gay men were incorporated into the model. These show that HIV is generally detected early, with median CD4 cell count at the time of diagnosis being 410 cells/mm3. It assumed that the patients had fully drug-sensitive HIV, had a 40% chance of being a smoker for life, were not co-infected with hepatitis and were never lost to follow-up. HIV treatment was started when the patients’ CD4 cell count fell to 350 cells/mm3 and the patients were fully adherent to this.
Higher rates of some non-HIV-related illnesses have been observed in patients with HIV. Therefore, the investigators assumed that their simulated patients were 50% more likely to die of such diseases than individuals in the general population.
The same scenario was considered for patients whose HIV was diagnosed late.
In ideal conditions, with timely diagnosis of HIV, the life expectancy of patients was 75 years (range, 63 to 83 years). This increased to 78 years if the patient did not smoke (range, 66 to 86 years).
Read the rest.
[Content that is linked from other sources is for informational purposes and should not construe a Mapping Pathways position.]
New UK research provides further evidence of the dramatic impact of antiretroviral therapy on the prognosis of HIV-positive patients. Published in the online edition of AIDS, a simulated model showed that a non-smoking, 30-year-old gay man, whose HIV is diagnosed promptly, could expect to live until he is 78 years of age. A gay man who smoked, but whose HIV was detected early, had a life expectancy of 75 years.The model also showed that late diagnosis of HIV cut life expectancy. Nevertheless, it showed the clear benefits of HIV therapy in these circumstances. A gay man whose HIV was detected when his CD4 cell count was just 140 cells/mm3 could still expect to live until he was 71.5 years old.
“Predicted life expectancy in people with HIV is high in settings with access to multiple antiretroviral drugs,” comment the investigators. “Delays in diagnosis pose the greatest risk of excess mortality for people with HIV.”
It is now well established that modern antiretroviral therapy significantly improves the life expectancy of patients with HIV. However, investigators from the UK were concerned that studies attempting to quantify prognosis may have underestimated the benefits of treatment because they did not take into account improvements in HIV therapy and care.
They therefore developed their own prognostic model. It was based on 10,000 theoretical gay men whose HIV was diagnosed in 2010. They selected this group because factors other than HIV impact on the prognosis of the other main groups affected by HIV in the UK.
Rates of HIV testing currently observed in UK gay men were incorporated into the model. These show that HIV is generally detected early, with median CD4 cell count at the time of diagnosis being 410 cells/mm3. It assumed that the patients had fully drug-sensitive HIV, had a 40% chance of being a smoker for life, were not co-infected with hepatitis and were never lost to follow-up. HIV treatment was started when the patients’ CD4 cell count fell to 350 cells/mm3 and the patients were fully adherent to this.
Higher rates of some non-HIV-related illnesses have been observed in patients with HIV. Therefore, the investigators assumed that their simulated patients were 50% more likely to die of such diseases than individuals in the general population.
The same scenario was considered for patients whose HIV was diagnosed late.
In ideal conditions, with timely diagnosis of HIV, the life expectancy of patients was 75 years (range, 63 to 83 years). This increased to 78 years if the patient did not smoke (range, 66 to 86 years).
Read the rest.
[Content that is linked from other sources is for informational purposes and should not construe a Mapping Pathways position.]
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