Lamivudine-based maintenance antiretroviral therapies in patients living with HIV-1 with suppressed HIV RNA: derivation of a predictive score for virological failure.

OBJECTIVES: Two-drug antiretroviral regimens based on lamivudine (3TC) plus either a protease inhibitor (PI) or dolutegravir (DTG) are becoming increasingly popular in switch strategies. Our goal was to derive a predictive score for virological failure (VF). METHODS: We retrospectively analysed data for a cohort of 587 virologically suppressed (HIV RNA < 37 HIV-1 RNA copies/mL), adult (≥ 18 years old) patients starting lamivudine plus either a boosted PI or dolutegravir. Predictors of VF (defined as a single HIV RNA measurement ≥ 1000 copies/mL or two consecutive HIV RNA measurements ≥ 50 copies/mL) were identified using a multivariate Cox regression model. A 'weighted' score was assigned to each variable associated with VF; the discriminative power of the score obtained was expressed as the area under the receiver-operator characteristic curve (ROC-AUC). RESULTS: During a median 2 years of follow-up time, 35 VFs occurred; predictors of VF were baseline residual HIV RNA between 20 and 36 copies/mL, African ethnicity, ≥ 10 therapeutic lines, the presence of at least one resistance-associated mutation (RAM) for resistance to current drugs (excluding M184V), a non-B viral subtype and a baseline CD4 count < 200 cells/µL. A score of 2 was assigned to non-B viral subtype, 3 to residual viraemia ≥ 20 copies/mL, ≥ 10 previous therapeutic lines and African ethnicity, 4 to baseline CD4 count < 200 cells/µL, and 7 to the presence of at least one RAM (excluding M184V). The ROC-AUC was 0.67 (95% confidence interval 0.57-0.77). CONCLUSIONS: The presence of at least one RAM, higher residual viraemia and African ethnicity were among the major predictors of VF in our cohort. Studies with larger sample sizes are warranted to improve the predictive value of the derived score.

An outbreak of acute hepatitis A among young adult men: clinical features and HIV coinfection rate from a large teaching hospital in Rome, Italy.

OBJECTIVES: Italy is a low-incidence region for hepatitis A; however, during the last 2 years an increase in the incidence of hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection was reported in Europe. The aim of this study was to describe this recent outbreak. METHODS: We retrospectively analysed all cases of acute hepatitis A diagnosed at our laboratory between January 2010 and June 2017. We evaluated the following variables at the time of diagnosis: sex, age, nationality, glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT/AST), glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT/ALT), bilirubin concentration, international normalized ratio (INR) and the presence or absence of anti-HIV-1/2 antibodies. Hospitalization was also considered. We analysed these parameters using the χ2 test and Mann-Whitney U-test. RESULTS: A total of 225 cases were analysed; 82.7% were in male patients, 94.2% were in Italians and the median age of the patients was 36.4 years. At diagnosis, the median GOT value was 306 U/L, the median GPT was 1389 U/L, and the median total bilirubin value was 5.88 mg/dL. Hospitalization was required for 142 patients, with a median duration of hospital stay of 8.5 days. In 2016-2017 we registered 141 cases, with a higher prevalence of male patients, higher GPT values and a higher prevalence of patients aged 20-39 years compared with older (2010-2015) cases. Homosexual intercourse was reported as the HAV risk factor in 70.2% of patients. HIV serology was available for 120 patients: 24 were HIV-positive, four of whom represented new diagnoses. HIV-positive patients showed lower bilirubin and GPT values and fewer hospitalizations than HIV-negative patients. CONCLUSIONS: In 2016-2017, we saw a rise in the number of hepatitis A cases, with a higher prevalence of adult male patients. No significant differences regarding the prevalence of HIV coinfection emerged.

Spiramycin/cotrimoxazole versus pyrimethamine/sulfonamide and spiramycin alone for the treatment of toxoplasmosis in pregnancy.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effectiviness of spiramycin/cotrimoxazole (Sp/C) versus pyrimethamine/sulfonamide (Pyr/Sul) and spiramycin alone (Spy) on mother-to-child transmission of toxoplasmosis infection in pregnancy. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective study of pregnant women evaluated for suspected toxoplasmosis between 1992 and 2011. RESULT: A total of 120 mothers and their 123 newborns were included. Prenatal treatment consisted of spiramycin in 43 mothers (35%), spiramycin/cotrimoxazole in 70 (56.9%) and pyrimethamine/sulfonamide in 10 (8.1%). A trend toward reduction in toxoplasmosis transmission was found when Sp/C was compared with Pyr/Sul and particularly with Spy alone (P=0.014). In particular, Spy increased the risk of congenital infection when compared with Sp/C (odds ratio (OR) 4.368; 95% CI: 1.253 to 15.219), but there was no significant reduction when Sp/C was compared with Pyr/Sul (OR 1.83; 95% CI: 0.184 to 18.274). CONCLUSION: The treatment based on Sp/C has significant efficacy in reducing maternal-fetal transmission of Toxoplasma gondii when compared with Pyr/Sul and particularly to Spy. Randomized controlled trials would be required.

Role of spiramycin/cotrimoxazole association in the mother-to-child transmission of toxoplasmosis infection in pregnancy.

The purpose of this report is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of spiramycin/cotrimoxazole in the mother-to-child transmission of Toxoplasma gondii infection. We retrospectively analysed 76 infants born to mothers with toxoplasmosis during pregnancy and estimated the risk of mother-to-child transmission considering the gestational age at the time of infection. Seventy-six mothers were given spiramycin, cotrimoxazole and folinic acid; only two babies (2.6%) were infected by Toxoplasma and none of them showed signs or symptoms of congenital infection or interference of sulphamid on tetrahydrofolate reductase (THFR) either at birth or during follow-up. Treatment did not need to be stopped in any mother because of adverse drug effects. Our results seem to encourage the use of spiramycin/cotrimoxazole in women with toxoplasmosis during pregnancy.

Prevalence of IgG antibodies against Borrelia Burgdorferi s.l. and Ehrlichia Phagocytophila in sera of patients presenting symptoms of Lyme disease in a central region of Italy.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence (seroprevalence) of antibodies against Borrelia burgdorferi and Ehrlichia phagocytophila among patients resident in Lazio, a region of central Italy. Of a sample of 1,050 patients, which presented clinical manifestations related to Lyme disease, 34 (3.2%) were Borrelia-seropositive (Lyme index value >/= 1.2). The sera of 25 out of the 34 patients that were Borrelia-positive were also analysed for the presence of antibodies against E. phagocytophila and 3 (12%) were found Ehrlichia-positive (titres >1:64). No Ehrlichia positive samples were found among sera of 250 Borrelia-negative patients. Since both B. burgdorferi s.l. and Ehrlichia species share the same tick vector (Ixodes ricinus), our results indicate that concurrent transmission of these microbial pathogens might have been occurred among the patients included in this study.

Multicenter evaluation of the new HIV DUO assay for simultaneous detection of HIV antibodies and p24 antigen.

A multicenter survey was performed to evaluate a new semi-automated human immunodeficiency virus fourth generation antibodies and antigen simultaneous assay. This assay showed a sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 99.6% among sera obtained from hospitalized patients or blood donors. Sera obtained from commercially available as well as in-house seroconversions were tested showing that HIV DUO is able to reveal an infected state in 11 out of 14 cases earlier than conventional tests. This new assay improves old test performances in terms of sensitivity, maintaining specificity at very high levels.

Syphilis serology among transvestite prostitutes attending an HIV unit in Rome, Italy.

Sixty-seven transvestite prostitutes from Latin America (49 from Brazil and 18 from Colombia) who attended an HIV unit located in the inner city of Rome between January 1991 and June 1992 were studied for syphilis markers by means of both the Treponema pallidum haemoagglutination test (TPHA) and a solid phase haemadsorption test for detection of specific IgM (SPHA-IgM) which are typically present in recent infections. All participants reported more than 500 sexual partners in the past year, and 67.1% of them more than 1500 partners (between 5 and 10 partners per working day). The overall prevalence of anti-HIV antibodies in this population was 65.7%. The prevalence of positive TPHA tests in the population studied was 73.1%, while that of positive SPHA-IgM tests was 10.4%. The prevalence of positive TPHA and SPHA-IgM tests was higher among Columbians than among Brazilians (83.3% vs 69.4% and 22.2% vs 6.1%, respectively) and also showed a positive correlation with the duration of their permanence in Italy. The TPHA and SPHA-IgM positivities were significantly higher among subjects older than 29 years. Positive TPHA was also significantly higher in subjects who reported a history of heroin and/or cocaine abuse while positive SPHA-IgM was higher in subjects who did not use condoms or reported irregular use of them than in subjects who regularly used condoms. No overall correlation was evident between TPHA positivity and anti-HIV positivity, while SPHA-IgM positivity was found to be higher among anti-HIV-negative subjects.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)