Incidence Rates and Risk Factors for Vision Loss among AIDS-Related Cytomegalovirus Retinitis Patients in Southern Thailand

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To describe the incidence of and risk factors for visual acuity (VA) loss in patients with AIDS and cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis.

Methods: A total of 132 patients were included. The main outcome measurements were the incidences of VA loss to ≤20/50 and ≤20/200.

Results: The incidences of VA loss to ≤20/50 and ≤20/200 were 0.22/eye-year (EY) and 0.12/EY, respectively. Risk factors for the incidence of VA loss to ≤20/50 were low nadir CD4⁺ T-cell count (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 3.1), large area of retinitis (aHR, 3.7), and no immune recovery (IR) (aHR, 13.9). Risk factors for the incidence of VA loss to ≤20/200 were not receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) (aHR, 4.4) and large retinitis area (aHR, 2.1).

Conclusions: The incidence of VA loss in eyes affected by CMV retinitis was high. The use of HAART, particularly with subsequent immune recovery, substantially reduced the incidence of VA loss.

Keywords:

• AIDS
• blindness
• cytomegalovirus
• HIV
• retinitis
• Thailand
• visual acuity loss

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Alan Geater for his valuable suggestions concerning the statistics used in this project. We would also like to thank Ms. Parichat Damthongsuk for her assistance in collecting and analyzing the data. Finally, we would like to thank Mr. Edmond Subashi for editing the English manuscript.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.