What I know about HIV drug regimens and lipodystrophy so far

[Guest guest]

These is a list of data I remember:

Truvada containing regimens do not cause lipoatrophy in most cases. 15 percent

of patients starting on Truvada plus Sustiva may have some lipoatrophy, however.

None of the switch studies from protease inh to non nukes have shown decreases

in visceral (belly fat)

A study that switched patients from Kaletra plus Truvada to boosted reyataz plus

Truvada showed no decreases in body fat, but good decreases in triglycerides.

Another study showed that visceral fat decreased with that switch

Now the Castle study is showing that both kaletra and boosted reyataz cause fat

gain. Boosted reyataz increases fat more than kaletra in thinner people. In

heavier people, kaletra increases fat more than reyataz. I am not aware of any

baseline CD4 differences among the thin and heavier patients.

Another study that started people with over 250 CD4s with boosted Aptivus and

Truvada showed no increases whatsover in belly fat. This drug is not used as

much as others.

I think we are getting closer to the conclusion that the earlier you start HIV

treatments (higher CD4 cell counts) the lower is the risk of increased fat. I

know this information will probably make people more open to starting therapy.

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