HIV Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about HIV, including details on human immunodeficiency virus, testing, treatment, prevention, vaccines, aids. | ||||||||
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Longitudinal study of the ocular complications of AIDS: 1. Ocular diagnoses at enrollment.Jabs DA, Van Natta ML, Holbrook JT, Kempen JH, Meinert CL, Davis MD, Department of Ophthalmology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. djabs@jhmi.edu OBJECTIVE: To report the prevalence of ocular complications of AIDS in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). DESIGN: Cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: Patients with AIDS, 13 years or older. METHODS: History, eye examination, and laboratory testing at enrollment. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Frequency of ocular complications at enrollment. RESULTS: As of March 31, 2003, 1632 participants with AIDS were enrolled. The cohort had a history of severe immune deficiency, as evidenced by a median nadir CD4+ T-cell count of 30 cells per microliter. At enrollment, the median CD4+ T-cell count was 164 cells per microliter. CD4+ T-cell counts were <50 in 24.1% but > or =100 in 63.6% and > or =200 in 43.0%. Cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis was present in 22.1%, whereas other ocular opportunistic infections each were present in < or =0.6%. The incidence of CMV retinitis estimated from retrospective data was 5.60/100 person-years. Of the 360 patients with CMV retinitis, 22.5% were newly diagnosed at enrollment, and the remainder had more long-standing CMV retinitis (median, 2.8 years). CONCLUSIONS: Although there is the possibility of oversampling patients with AIDS and ocular complications (as compared with a random sample), which would lead to increased estimates of prevalent and incident ocular morbidities, these data still suggest a substantial decline in the incidence of CMV retinitis from the pre-HAART era. Nevertheless, new cases of CMV retinitis continue to occur, and there is a population of patients with long-standing retinitis who will require management. Published 2 April 2007 in Ophthalmology, 114(4): 780-6.
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