Alexithymia in HIV, HCV and coinfections.

Recent studies show that alexithymia, an impairment of emotional processing, plays a role in HIV and HCV infections, although little is known about about alexithymia in HIV/HCV coinfection. This study aimed to assess alexithymia in patients suffering from HIV, HCV or HIV/HCV coinfection and observe major differences. We selected 153 subjects, excluding those with psychiatric diagnosis, cognitive impairment or opportunistic diseases, of whom 70 (46%) had HIV infection, 57 (37%) HCV infection and 26 (17%) HIV/HCV coinfection. For the evaluation of alexithymia, we used the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), a self-report questionnaire which allows the results to be assessed both on a dimensional level and on defined cutoff scores. Data analysis showed significant differences between monoinfected and coinfected subjects. The coinfected group had a mean score of 54.00 ±13.43, higher than HIV (48.11 ± 12.38) and HCV (48.28 ± 10.71) (p <0.05). Furthermore, we found clinically relevant scores (≥51) in 65.38% of coinfected subjects, in 42.85% of HIV and in 40.35% of HCV (p <0.05). Given the medical and behavioral correlates of alexithymia highlighted in the literature, we suggest that further investigations are needed to clarify the relationship between alexithymia and HIV/HCV coinfection.

Trend of estimated glomerular filtration rate during ombistasvir/paritaprevir/ritonavir plus dasabuvir ± ribavirin in HIV/HCV co-infected patients.

The renal function is a key-issue in HIV/HCV co-infected patients, nevertheless, it has not established so far whether HCV treatment with new direct acting agents could impact on estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) variations. In the present work, we examined the real-life data on renal function that have been prospectively collected in the SIMIT compassionate-use program of ombitasvir/paritaprevir/ritonavir plus dasabuvir (OBV/PTV/r + DSV) in 144 HIV/HCV genotype 1 co-infected patients. The population was 74% male, 30.5% in CDC stage C, with median age of 52 years (48.0-56.5) and median liver stiffness of 7.8 kPa (6.7-9.2). Median baseline eGFR was 102.0 (90.8-108.1), changing to 99.8 (83.5-104.8) at the end of treatment (EoT), and 100.0 (87.3-105.6) 12 weeks after the EoT (FU12), p<0.0001. No patient had grade 3-4 increase of creatinine. At EoT 60/144 (41.7%) patients had ≥ 5% reduction in their eGFR, confirmed at FU12 in 39/60 (65.0%) cases. Longer duration of HCV infection (cut-off 12.9 years), lower HCV-RNA viral load (cut-off 1,970,160 IU/ml) and lower platelet count (cut-off 167,000 x106/L) were significantly associated with eGFR decline at logistic analysis (adjOR 2.9, 95%CI 1.0-8.8, p = 0.05; adjOR 3.5, 95%CI 1.2-10.4, p = 0.02; adjOR 2.8, 95%CI 1.1-6.8, p = 0.03, respectively). After repeating the analysis throughout a mixed model, a higher eGFR decline was highlighted in patients concomitantly treated with tenofovir (p = 0.0001), ribavirin (p = 0.0001), or integrase inhibitors (p <0.0001), with longer duration of HIV (p = 0.0002) and HCV infection (p = 0.035), lower baseline HCV RNA (p <0.0001), previous HCV treatment (p<0.0001), and older age (p<0.0001). In conclusion, our study confirms a good renal safety profile of OBV/PTV/r + DSV treatment in HIV/HCV patients, and the median decline of 2 ml/min in eGFR, albeit statistically significant, is of doubtful clinical significance. The role of aging, concomitant therapies and duration of HIV/HCV infection needs to be further investigated.

Ombitasvir/Paritaprevir/Ritonavir and Dasabuvir Combination Treatment in Patients with HIV/HCV Co-Infection: Results of an Italian Compassionate Use Program.

Patients co-infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are at high risk of liver disease progression. We report a favorable safety profile and SVR12 rates of 96.7% among HIV/HCV co-infected patients participating in an Italian compassionate-use program of ombitasvir/paritaprevir/ritonavir + dasabuvir (OBV/PTV/r + DSV) ± ribavirin (RBV).