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May 1, 2008. Although the overall rate of adverse events among HIV-positive people initiating antiretroviral treatment does not differ significantly among different races and genders, there are significant differences in the incidence of specific adverse events, according to a study recently published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, Reuters Health reports. For the study, Ellen Tedaldi of Temple University's School of Medicine and colleagues compared the frequency and types of adverse effects among 1,301 patients who were initiating antiretroviral therapy. The study included 701 black participants, 225 Latinos and 273 women. The study did not find significant differences among races or gender in regard to death from any cause or treatment withdrawal rates because of drug toxicity (Reuters Health, 4/30).
According to the study, several "baseline characteristics" differed based on gender and race -- including age, HIV transmission risk, hepatitis B or C coinfection, viral load, diagnosis of AIDS, body mass index and baseline hypertension (Tedaldi et al., JAIDS, 4/1). Cardiovascular and kidney side effects were 2.64 and 3.83 times more frequent, respectively, among the black participants than among white participants, the study found. This finding was consistent with the increased rates of heart disease, diabetes and kidney disease found among all black men and women, the researchers noted. |
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