Illustration of a measure to combine viral suppression and viral rebound in studies of HIV therapy

摘要

Viral load is an important tool for assessing antiretroviral treatment efficacy. However, the most common viral load endpoint, virologic failure, may be flawed. We illustrate an alternative endpoint that estimates the average time patients spent suppressed prior to rebound in the AIDS Clinical Trials Group A5095 trial. Patients averaged 644 days suppressed in the 3-drug arm and 686 days suppressed in the 4-drug arm, for a difference of 42 days in favor of the 4-drug regimen (95% CI: −11, 96). These results agree with results using virologic failure as the endpoint but better emphasize the separate suppression and rebound processes.