An alternative methodology for the prediction of adherence to anti HIV treatment

I Richard Thompson, Penelope Bidgood, Andrea Petroczi, James CW Denholm-Price, Mark D Fielder, The EuResist Network Study Group
2009 AIDS Research and Therapy  
Successful treatment of HIV-positive patients is fundamental to controlling the progression to AIDS. Causes of treatment failure are either related to drug resistance and/or insufficient drug levels in the blood. Severe side effects, coupled with the intense nature of many regimens, can lead to treatment fatigue and consequently to periodic or permanent non-adherence. Although non-adherence is a recognised problem in HIV treatment, it is still poorly detected in both clinical practice and
more » ... ch and often based on unreliable information such as self-reports, or in a research setting, Medication Events Monitoring System caps or prescription refill rates. To meet the need for having objective information on adherence, we propose a method using viral load and HIV genome sequence data to identify non-adherence amongst patients. Presentation of the hypothesis: With non-adherence operationally defined as a sharp increase in viral load in the absence of mutation, it is hypothesised that periods of non-adherence can be identified retrospectively based on the observed relationship between changes in viral load and mutation.
doi:10.1186/1742-6405-6-9 pmid:19486507 pmcid:PMC2698819 fatcat:w3tb3baikveyjf2ibjq6zvfisu