Efficacy and safety of an anti-retroviral combination regimen including either efavirenz or lopinavir–ritonavir with a backbone of two nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors

ABSTRACTThe efficacy and safety of a combination regimen including either efavirenz or lopinavir–ritonavir was examined in a cohort of 65 patients positive for human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1). Both the efavirenz (n = 33, 18 anti-retroviral naive) and lopinavir–ritonavir (n = 32, 15 naive) regimens achieved significant changes from baseline CD4 cell counts and HIV RNA levels after 108 weeks (p < 0.01). Despite diminished immunological and virological parameters at study entry, the lopinavir– ritonavir group showed greater virological effects than the efavirenz group after 108 weeks (median change 3.3 log10, interquartile range (IQR) 2.2–3.8 log10 vs. 2.4 log10, IQR 0.9–3.3 log10, respectively, p 0.004). Use of lopinavir–ritonavir, in contrast to use of efavirenz, was associated with significant hypertriglyceridaemia.