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Session 118 Poster Abstracts
Access to Care and Antiretroviral Therapy
Monday, 1:30 - 3:30 pm
Poster Hall


862
Clinical and Epidemiological Trends and Patterns of Antiretroviral Therapy among HIV+ Patients PISCIS Cohort, Spain
A Jaén*1, J Casabona1, J M Miro2, J M Gatell2, C Tural3, D Podzamczer4, E Ferrer4, S Riera5, F Segura6, L Force7, J Vilaró8, A Masabeu9, I Garcia10, E Dorca11, J Altés12, and PISCIS study group
1CEESCAT, Barcelona, Spain; 2Hosp. Clin., Barcelona, Spain; 3Hosp. Univ. Germans Trias i Pujol, Barcelona, Spain; 4Hosp. de Bellvitge, Barcelona, Spain; 5Hosp. de Son Dureta, Palma de Mallorca, Spain; 6Consorci Sanitari Parc Taulí, Sabadell, Spain; 7Hosp. de Mataró, Mataró, Spain; 8Hosp. Gen. de Vic, Vic, Spain; 9Hosp. de Palamós, Palamós, Spain; 10Hosp. Creu Roja, Hosp. of Llobregat, Spain; 11Hosp. de Manresa, Manresa, Spain; and 12Hosp. Alt Penedès, Vilafranca, Spain

Background:  Spain has the second highest incidence of AIDS in Europe. After HAART era the natural history of HIV infection have changed. The aim of this study is to describe the evolution of the epidemiological, clinical and biological characteristics of HIV+ patients recruited from 1998 in an ongoing multi-center cohort study.

Methods:  The PISCIS project includes newly attended HIV+ patients (≥16 years) from 10 hospitals from Catalonia and 1 from Balearic islands. Epidemiological, clinical, biological, and antiretroviral therapy (ART) data from each patient is sent to the Coordination Center every 4 months. For the purpose of this analysis data was censured at December 2002 and analysis was done using the Mantel’s X2 test for trend.

Results:  During the study period a total of 4759 patients (75% men, mean age 39) were recruited, and the mean follow-up was 21months. Of the group, 2591 were diagnosed during the study period (newly diagnosed patients). Overall, the percentage of patients that every year are on ART remains constant around 85%. Patients on 3 or more drug regimens has increased over time (9% in 1998 to 29% in 2002, p <0.001), while the proportion of patients using a protease inhibitor (PI) in triple combination therapies has decreased (82% to 32%, p <0.001). Among newly diagnosed patients, the individuals under 35 years has increased across years (p <0.0001), being 45% in 2002, and the proportion of men and women have remained constant. The highest proportion was found within heterosexual transmission route (76% in women and 29% in men, in 2002) and homo/bisexual among men (40%). The AIDS defined disease has decreased across the years both, at the recruitment (from 24% in 1998 to 17% in 2002, p <0.001) and during follow-up (30% to 20%, p <0.001). Among 1963 subjects that had the first CD4 count within a 6-month period of HIV diagnosis, 44% had a CD4 below 200 c/mm3 in 2002, without differences across the years.

Conclusions:  In our setting ARV regimens have changed according to the recommended protocols, being combination therapy more frequent and decreasing the use of IP. Over time the age of newly diagnosed have decreased, and the more frequent route of infection is heterosexual contacts. Interestingly, the diagnosis delay is high and it did not change over time. Cohort studies can describe the natural history of HIV infection, but also they provide important data for health care and intervention programs improvement.

 

Keywords: HIV cohort; Epidemiological characteristics; Antiretroviral patterns