The effect of the different treatment protocols on virological and immunological responses in patients with HIV/AIDS

This study analyzed the differences between the virological and immunological responses in patients with HIV/AIDS subjected to different treatment protocols. The cases treated with HAART were divided into groups on the basis of treatment protocols. The groups were evaluated with respect to the differences by comparing the virological and immunological responses prior to treatment and at 12 and 24 weeks of therapy. Six different treatment protocols were applied in the treated patients. As the largest clusters, the lopinavir/ritonavir-based patient group (Group 1, n = 29) and efavirenz-based patient group (Group 2, n = 18) were compared. The mean CD4 and HIV-RNA values of Groups 1 and 2 were 184 and 243 h/μl and 422,266 and 317,684 copies/ml, respectively. At 24 weeks of treatment, the HIV-RNA levels were below detectable values in 86% and 78% of the patients in Groups 1 and 2, respectively (p > 0.001). The striking outcomes observed in this study demonstrated that the pretreatment HIV-RNA level, CD4 value, gender, age, and protease inhibitor- or non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor-based combined treatment protocols do not cause a significant difference and that patient compliance to treatment is the most important factor associated with treatment success.