Baseline CD4-Cell Count and HCV Treatment Success

Retrospective analyses in HIV/HCV-coinfected patients did not demonstrate a link between baseline CD4-cell count and HCV treatment response, but the total number of patients with low CD4-cell counts was too small to make this conclusion definitively.

Current guidelines recommend that patients coinfected with HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) start HCV treatment only when their CD4 counts are ≥200 cells/mm³. This recommendation is based on early studies of conventional interferon, which suggested that the likelihood of treatment response was directly proportional to baseline CD4-cell count. Whether this association holds true with current standard therapy — pegylated interferon plus ribavirin — is unclear, even with the data now available from two large studies.

In the first study, researchers retrospectively evaluated data from the large, manufacturer-sponsored AIDS Pegasys Ribavirin International Coinfection Trial (APRICOT), which previously demonstrated that pegylated interferon plus rib…

Reviewing Author

Helmut Albrecht, MD

Disclosures

Grant / Research supportHealth Resources and Services Administration; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Leadership positions in professional societiesColumbia Medical Society; South Carolina Infectious Diseases Society

Helmut Albrecht, MD

Disclosures

Grant / Research supportHealth Resources and Services Administration; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Leadership positions in professional societiesColumbia Medical Society; South Carolina Infectious Diseases Society

Baseline CD4-Cell Count and HCV Treatment Success

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Reviewing Author