Cholesterol

The study is published in the April 15th issue of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

The FIRST study (Flexible Initial Retrovirus Suppressive Therapies – CPCRA 058) was a long-term, prospective clinical trial that compared three first-line antiretroviral strategies.

Participants (all antiretroviral-naïve) were provided with a nucleoside backbone and were then randomised to receive either a protease inhibitor (PI), non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI), or both.

Specific treatments within each class were chosen by the participant and their treating physician.

Published results from FIRST (MacArthur 2006) showed that the three-class strategy was not more effective than either two-class treatment, and was more toxic overall.

In this report, a distinct substudy (CPCRA 061) of the larger trial compared the metabolic outcomes of the three strategies.

A total of 422 participants (from 1,397 in the FIRST trial) were enrolled: 141 on PIs, 141 on NNRTIs, and 140 on both.

Characteristics were as follows (and very similar between the treatment arms): mean age 38 years, 22% female, 60% black, 27% white, 10% Latino, mean CD4 count 215 cells/mm3, mean viral load 5 log10 copies/ml.

Very few participants were already on lipid-lowering or diabetic treatme...

Read more...