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Death rates in HIV-positive antiretroviral-naive patients with CD4 count greater than 350 cells per microL in Europe and North America: a pooled cohort observational study

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 16:43 authored by The Study Group on Death Rates at High CD4 Count in Antiretrovir, Martin Fisher
BACKGROUND Whether people living with HIV who have not received antiretroviral therapy (ART) and have high CD4 cell counts have higher mortality than the general population is unknown. We aimed to examine this by analysis of pooled data from industrialised countries. METHODS We merged data on demographics, CD4 cell counts, viral-load measurements, hepatitis C co-infection status, smoking status, date of death, and whether death was AIDS-related or not from 23 European and North American cohorts. We calculated standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) standardised by age, sex, and year, stratifying by risk group. Data were included for patients aged 20-59 years who had at least one CD4 count greater than 350 cells per microL while ART naive. All pre-ART CD4 counts greater than 350 cells per microL from January, 1990, to December, 2004, were included. We investigated mortality for four risk groups--men who have sex with men, heterosexual people, injecting drug users, and those at other or unknown risk. The association between CD4 cell count and death rate was investigated by use of Poisson regression methods. FINDINGS Data were analysed for 40,830 patients contributing 80,682 person-years of follow-up. Of 419 deaths, 401 were used in the SMR analysis: 100 men who have sex with men (SMR 1.30, 95% CI 1.06-1.58); 68 heterosexual people (2.94, 2.28-3.73); 203 injecting drug users (9.37, 8.13-10.75); and 30 in the other or unknown risk category (4.57, 3.09-6.53). Compared with CD4 counts of 350-499 cells per microL, death rate was lower in patients with counts of 500-699 cells per microL (adjusted rate ratio 0.77, 95% CI 0.61-0.95) and counts of 700 cells per microL (0.66, 0.52-0.85). INTERPRETATION In HIV-infected ART-naive patients with high CD4 cell counts, death rates were raised compared with the general population. In men who have sex with men this was modest, suggesting that a substantial proportion of the increased risk in other groups is due to confounding by other factors. Even though the increased risk is small, new studies of potential benefits of ART in this group are merited. FUNDING European Commission, FP6. European AIDS Treatment Network (NEAT). Project number LSHP-CT-2006-037570.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Lancet

ISSN

0140-6736

Publisher

Elsevier

Issue

9738

Volume

376

Page range

340-345

Department affiliated with

  • BSMS Publications

Notes

Martin Fisher is not a named author of this article but as a member of the UK CHIC Study and CASCADE Collaboration contributed to the Study Group on Death Rates at High CD4 Count in Antiretroviral Naive Patients.

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2014-04-07

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