Conditions: HIV Infections Cytomegalovirus Retinitis
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 234
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
To evaluate the relative safety and efficacy of ganciclovir and foscarnet as initial treatment of patients with cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis.

Detailed description:
CMV retinitis is the most common intraocular infection in patients with AIDS and is estimated to affect 35 to 40 percent of patients with AIDS. Untreated CMV retinitis is a progressive disorder, the end result of which is total retinal destruction and blindness. The first two drugs approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of CMV retinitis were ganciclovir (Cytovene) and foscarnet (Foscavir). At the time of this trial, both ganciclovir and foscarnet were available only as intravenous formulations. Both drugs were given in a similar two-step fashion: an initial 2-week course of high-dose therapy (induction) to control the infection followed by long-term lower dose therapy to prevent relapse (maintenance). The FGCRT compared foscarnet and ganciclovir as initial therapy for CMV retinitis.

The FGCRT was a multicenter, randomized, controlled clinical trial comparing foscarnet and ganciclovir as initial therapy for CMV retinitis. Patients with previously untreated CMV retinitis were randomized to therapy with either intravenous ganciclovir or intravenous foscarnet. The outcome measures of this trial were survival, retinitis progression, loss of visual function (visual acuity and visual field), and morbidity.

Arms:
arm 1: The induction dose for foscarnet is 60 mg/kg every 8 hours. Full dose maintenance therapy for foscarnet is 90 mg/kg/day arm 2: The induction dose for ganciclovir is 5 mg/kg every 12 hours. Full dose maintenance therapy for ganciclovir is 5 mg/kg every 24 hours, 7 days a week.

Interventions: intervention 1: Foscarnet intervention 2: Ganciclovir
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: 60 mg/kg every 8 hours, 90 mg/kg/day intervention 2: 5 mg/kg every 12 hours, 5 mg/kg every 24 hours

Protocol document: