Quality of life improvement in HIV-1 patients treated with raltegravir in a real-life observational study: RACING.

Background: Good efficacy and safety of raltegravir in person living with HIV was demonstrated in clinical trials over five years, but real-life data, particularly about quality of life (QoL), are lacking. QoL was evaluated over time in adult patients first treated or switched to regimens containing raltegravir in an observational cohort study.

Methods: Patient QoL was evaluated using the Fatigue Impact Scale (FIS) and the HIV Symptom Index (HSI).

Involvement of Bcl-2 and IL-2R in HIV-positive patients whose CD4 cell counts fail to increase rapidly with highly active antiretroviral therapy.

Objective: Combination antiretroviral therapy in a subset of HIV-infected patients, here called CD4-low responders (CD4-LR), fails to produce a rapid rise in CD4 cell counts despite effective control of plasma viral load (< 50 copies/ml). The mechanism responsible for this failure was investigated.

Design And Methods: CD4-LR patients (n = 13) included in the study had been receiving stable antiretroviral therapy for > 9 months, resulting in undetectable viral load, but nontheless showed a CD4 cell count of < 200 x 106 cells/l.