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The prognosis of patients on effective antiretroviral therapy remains unclear, particularly when they have other serious medical conditions. A predictive index constructed from common laboratory values has proven successful in predicting all-cause mortality among HIV-infected veterans. Now, researchers have evaluated the usefulness of the same index in predicting serious morbidity as reflected by hospital admissions.
Each of the 3410 HIV-infected patients enrolled between 2002 and 2008 in the large, prospective Veterans Aging Cohort Study had a “VACS Index” score calculated from baseline values for age, CD4-cell count, viral load, hemoglobin, creatinine, liver enzymes, and hepatitis C serostatus. Virtually all the participants were men, and …