Comparison study on the development of severe anemia as a side effect from two most commonly used HAART regimens in HIV/AIDS patients at Patna, India

Objective: To know the difference in the development of severe anemia as a complication from the two different but most commonly used first line HAART regimens in India were studied in the preset research. Patients in the study were initially HAART naïve. METHODS: This research study was conducted between October 2005 and October 2006 at the HIV/AIDS clinic at Patna, India. 108 adult male HIV/AIDS patients between 18 to 45 years age group, ( all had CD4 cell count between 100-200, average CD4 145 at the advent of HAART and the baseline Hemoglobin percent of all the selected patients were >85%). 58 patients (53.7%) were on were on ZDV/3TC/NVP combination while 50 patients (46.3%) were on d4T/3TC/NVP combination. Severe Anemia (Hb < 40%) as a major side effect was studied from these two combinations after 6 months of initiation of therapy. Viral load assessment was not done due to cost and time factor. RESULTS: At the end of 6 months of initiation of HAART, in Group 1, 18 patients developed severe anemia ( Hb< 40%) while in group 2, only 04 patients had developed severe anemia with Hb <40%) When the data was analyzed with Chi Square Significance Testing, the difference was found to be statistically highly significant. (p<0.001) CONCLUSION: From this study, we found that severe anemia as a complication were more prevalent in Group 1 patients on ZDV/3TC/NVP compared to the group 2 patients on d4T/3TC/NVP combination.