Further Exploring the Findings from SMART

Of the many SMART substudies described at the 2007 IAS Conference, the most intriguing was a report about patients who were treatment naive or off therapy at baseline.

Previous reports from the SMART study demonstrated that interrupting antiretroviral therapy (ART) at CD4 counts >350 cells/mm³ substantially increases the risk for HIV progression and for non-AIDS complications (ACC Nov 29 2006). Now, as described at the 4th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention, investigators have conducted a variety of substudies in SMART to further evaluate the consequences of both delayed treatment initiation and treatment interruption.

Consequences of Delayed ART Initiation

Although the vast majority of SMART participants were receiving antiretrovirals at study enrollment, a small number of patients (approximately 500) were treatment naive or had not received ART in the 6 months prior to enrollment…

Author

Gerald H. Friedland, MD

Further Exploring the Findings from SMART

Topics

Consequences of Delayed ART Initiation

Author