Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate secular trends in waiting times in CD4-based stages of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease progression in two cohorts of homosexual men, one in Vancouver and one in Amsterdam. All HIV-positive men with two or more CD4 counts in their AIDS-free period between 1 January 1985 and 1 January 1997 were included in this study. Data regarding clinical AIDS diagnoses (using the 1987 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] AIDS case definition) and death were collected through active follow-up, review of hospital records, and municipal/national registries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To estimate the incubation-period distribution (time from seroconversion to AIDS) accounting for death before an AIDS diagnosis (DBAD) in a cohort of injecting drug users (IDU) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and to compare these estimates with those previously obtained from a contemporaneous study of homosexual and bisexual men in Amsterdam carried out using the same facilities.
Design: Participants in a cohort study begun in Amsterdam at the end of 1985 have scheduled follow-up visits every 4 months. All participants of Dutch nationality and who had two or more follow-up visits before January 1996 from which CD4 measurements were available were included in this study.
Circulating and ex vivo production of interleukin (IL)-1beta, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, IL-6, and IL-1 receptor antagonist (ra) and the diagnostic utility of these cytokines were studied in 123 patients with fever of unknown origin (FUO). Diagnoses were infections, 28; neoplasms, 14; noninfectious inflammatory diseases (NIID), 32; miscellaneous diseases, 10; and none made, 39. IL-1beta, IL-6, and IL-1ra concentrations were higher in patients with infections, neoplasms, and NIID than in healthy controls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: We used continuous-time Markov models based on CD4 cell counts and anti-CD3 reactivity (i.e., measure for T-cell quality) to study the progression of HIV infection in a cohort study of homosexual men in Amsterdam.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The treatment-free incubation period distribution was estimated from data obtained from a cohort of homo/bisexual men in Amsterdam.
Design: Participants in a cohort study that started in Amsterdam at the end of 1984 were seen at 3- or 6-monthly intervals. The analysis excluded time since the start of zidovudine treatment (given to 27 individuals) and no cohort member received primary Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia prophylaxis (i.