TB meningitis in HIV-positive patients in Europe and Argentina: clinical outcome and factors associated with mortality.

OBJECTIVES: The study aimed at describing characteristics and outcome of tuberculous meningitis (TBM) in HIV-positive patients and comparing these parameters with those of extrapulmonary TB (TBEP) and pulmonary TB (TBP). METHODS: Kaplan-Meier estimation and Poisson regression models were used to assess the mortality following TB diagnosis and to evaluate potential prognostic factors for the 3 groups of TB patients separately. RESULTS: A total of 100 patients with TBM, 601 with TBEP, and 371 TBP were included. Patients with TBM had lower CD4 cell counts and only 17.0% received antiretroviral therapy (ART) at TB diagnosis. The cumulative probability of death at 12 months following TB was 51.2% for TBM (95% CI 41.4-61.6%), 12.3% for TBP (8.9-15.7%), and 19.4% for TBEP (16.1-22.6) (P<0.0001; log-rank test). For TBM, factors associated with a poorer prognosis were not being on ART (adjusted incidence rate ratio (aIRR) 4.00 (1.72-9.09), a prior AIDS diagnosis (aIRR=4.82 (2.61-8.92)), and receiving care in Eastern Europe (aIRR=5.41 (2.58-11.34))). CONCLUSIONS: TBM among HIV-positive patients was associated with a high mortality rate, especially for patients from Eastern Europe and patients with advanced HIV-infection, which urgently calls for public health interventions to improve both TB and HIV aspects of patient management.

Benchmarking HIV health care: from individual patient care to health care evaluation. An example from the EuroSIDA study.

BACKGROUND: State-of-the-art care involving the utilisation of multiple health care interventions is the basis for an optimal long-term clinical prognosis for HIV-patients. We evaluated health care for HIV patients based on four key indicators. METHODS: Four indicators of health care were assessed: Compliance with current guidelines on initiation of: 1) combination antiretroviral therapy (cART); 2) chemoprophylaxis; 3) frequency of laboratory monitoring; and 4) virological response to cART (proportion of patients with HIV-RNA < 500copies/ml for >90% of time on cART). RESULTS: 7097 EuroSIDA patients were included from Northern (n = 923), Southern (n = 1059), West Central (n = 1290) East Central (n = 1366), Eastern (n = 1964) Europe, and Argentina (n = 495). Patients in Eastern Europe with a CD4 < 200cells/mm(3) were less likely to initiate cART and Pneumocystis jiroveci-chemoprophylaxis compared to patients from all other regions, and less frequently had a laboratory assessment of their disease status. The proportion of patients with virological response was highest in Northern, 89% vs. 84%, 78%, 78%, 61%, 55% in West Central, Southern, East Central Europe, Argentina and Eastern Europe, respectively (p < 0.0001). Compared to Northern, patients from other regions had significantly lower odds of virological response; the difference was most pronounced for Eastern Europe and Argentina (adjusted OR 0.16 [95%CI 0.11-0.23, p < 0.0001]; 0.20[0.14-0.28, p < 0.0001] respectively). CONCLUSIONS: This assessment of HIV health care utilization revealed pronounced regional differences in adherence to guidelines and can help to identify gaps and direct target interventions. It may serve as a tool for the assessment and benchmarking of the clinical management of HIV patients in any setting worldwide.