Prevalence and Predictive Value of Intermittent Viremia With Combination HIV Therapy

Abstract

Intermittent viremia occurred frequently and was associated with higher levels of replication (Merck 035), but was not associated with virologic failure in patients receiving initial combination therapy of indinavir-zidovudine-lamivudine (ACTG 343 and Merck 035). In this population, treatment changes may not be necessary to maintain long-term virologic suppression with low-level or intermittent viremia.

Influence of Episodes of Intermittent Viremia (“Blips”) on Immune Responses and Viral Load Rebound in Successfully Treated HIV-Infected Patients

“…1,2,5,11,12,15,25 We did not find a clear cause of the EIV in 68.2% of the cases, as opposed to other previous publications in which 75.8% of patients did present a detectable cause. 15 In fact, although EIV had previously been identified as markers of low adherence, it has been demonstrated that this statement was wrong, 11,13,24 except for greater increases in VL.…”

The Significance of HIV ‘Blips’ in Resource-Limited Settings: Is It the Same? Analysis of the Treat Asia HIV Observational Database (TAHOD) and the Australian HIV Observational Database (AHOD)

“…Our study findings are in keeping with previous studies, conducted only in resource-rich settings, that found no association between blips and virological failure [2] – [6] , [11] – [15] . Two hundred and nine patients were switched to a different cART regimen in the setting of a blip.…”

The 48‐week efficacy of once‐daily saquinavir/ritonavir in patients with undetectable viral load after 3 years of antiretroviral therapy

“…While 91% of patients had an undetectable pVL at week 48 of od therapy, 45% of the patients had a detectable pVL at one of the six time-points during the treatment period, which was not statistically different from the percentage of patients with intermittent viraemia on bid therapy. This is consistent with other observations that 25-76% of patients who have achieved viral suppression (VL o50 copies/mL) still have intermittent viraemia, which can be related to future virological treatment failure in some situations [15,16]. The improved immunological response on od therapy in this selected population, when comparing 48 weeks on bid therapy with the same period on od therapy, may be explained by the increased exposure to SQV in the od PI regimen pharmacokinetics in our study [12].…”