It is disturbing, however, that about a third of the participants in both groups discontinued their treatment regimens. One interesting observation showed that people receiving the indinavir regimen had significant increases in cholesterol levels compared to their pre-study levels, whereas the group receiving abacavir had no significant changes in cholesterol levels. These results are reasonably good given that the viral load at study entry was so high. However, far fewer people who started with higher HIV levels were able to get their HIV levels below 40 copies HIV RNA compared to people who started with lower HIV levels. As a result, HIV levels might soon increase after starting this second regimen.
Many researchers believe that the first treatment regimen is the most important.
Several studies suggests this result in a longer lasting response to therapy that people who are not able to attain this kind of viral suppression. The fact remains we only have information on people who have been on these regimens for a relatively short period of time. Back to the Project Inform Perspective April 1999 contents page . This document was provided by Project Inform .