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P Dellamonica

Publications and source records attributed to P Dellamonica.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Hepatitis B virus-human immunodeficiency virus co-infection in France: a cross-sectional multicentre study.

This prospective, multicentre study was conducted between September and October 2003 in 38 French departments of internal medicine, infectious disease and hepatogastroenterology and included 406 consecutive HBV-infected patients (positive HBsAg), half of whom were HIV-infected (53%). The aim was to outline the main characteristics of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) co-infected patients in French hospitals. HBV-HIV co-infected patients (85% were receiving HAART; mean CD4 count 447+/-245/microl, HIV RNA load<400 copies/ml, 67% of patients), compared to HIV-negative patients, were more often male, injecting drug users, HBeAg-positive and HCV-HIV co-infected (P<10(-4)). They underwent liver biopsy less often (31% vs. 51%, P<10(-4)), particularly those with severe immunodeficiency. They received anti-HBV treatment more often (75% vs. 45.7%, P<10(-4)), mainly lamivudine and tenofovir. Significant improvements in the management of such patients are awaited mainly in the appraisal of liver disease by either liver biopsy or non-invasive alternatives to liver biopsy.

Adult↗

[Health related quality of life and lipodystrophy syndrome among HIV-infected patients].

AIM OF THE STUDY: The aim of this work is to show to what extent a psychosocial evaluation can lead bring to comprehension of the subjectivity of Quality of Life (QoL) among HIV-infected patients. Evaluation of QoL makes it possible to understand the link between the therapeutic effectiveness and the subjective evaluation of the treatment, but also to estimate more precisely how people live and take their treatment in the context of HIV infection. METHOD: This work confronts the variation of QoL with the variation of several social and psychosocial parameters identified as of the components of the system, which is the subjective evaluation, and more precisely to a specific side effect of Highly Active AntiRetroviral Therapies (HAART): lipodystrophy syndrome that consists in body fat redistribution. This side effect could consist in an accumulation of body fat, or a loss of body fat or a combination of both symptoms. The analysis was made on the data from APROCO-COPILOTE cohort composed of HIV-infected patients initiating HAART. RESULTS: Among a sample of 706 patients follow-up for three years and with available QoL data, we identified the variations of QoL according to the variation of this specific side effect and according to gender. Results show that lipodystrophy syndrome has a determinant impact on QoL different among male and female patients. Adjusted on clinical and socio-demographic characteristics, impaired women's QoL is associated with accumulation of body fat and impaired men's QoL is associated with loss of body fat. CONCLUSION: These results underline the role of body image on subjective evaluation of QoL. The analysis of empirical data made it possible to highlight the social implication of the evaluation of QoL from the role of the social support, patient-provider relationship and the social context.

Adult↗

Incidence and risk factors of bacterial pneumonia requiring hospitalization in HIV-infected patients started on a protease inhibitor-containing regimen.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the incidence and risk factors of bacterial pneumonia occurring in patients treated with antiretrovirals. METHODS: In the ongoing APROCO (Anti-proteases) cohort, 1281 patients at the initiation of a protease inhibitor (PI)-containing antiretroviral regimen were enrolled from 1997-1999. All events requiring hospitalization during follow up are recorded. Of these, bacterial pneumonia was defined as the occurrence of a new pulmonary infiltrate with fever and either evidence of a bacteriological cause (definite cases) or favourable outcome with antimicrobial therapy (presumptive cases). Risk factors of bacterial pneumonia were studied using survival analyses. RESULTS: During a median follow up of 43 months, 29 patients had at least one episode of bacterial pneumonia, giving an incidence of 0.8/100 patient years. The 11 definite cases were attributable to Streptococcus pneumoniae (n=9), Legionella pneumophila (n=1) and Haemophilus influenzae (n=1). In multivariate analysis, bacterial pneumonia was significantly more frequent in older patients, injecting drug users, patients having a CD4 cell count>500 cells/microL at baseline and patients who initiated PI therapy with nonboosted saquinavir. It was significantly less frequent in nonsmokers. The occurrence of bacterial pneumonia was also associated with lower self-reported adherence to antiretroviral therapy and to higher plasma HIV-1 RNA levels during follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Bacterial pneumonia occurs rarely in patients treated with a PI-containing regimen and may be associated with virological failure.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections↗

[Health related quality of life among HIV-HCV co-infected patients].

BACKGROUND: To assess factors associated with higher levels of health-related quality-of-life among HIV-HCV co-infected injecting drug users and more specifically, to explore the role of injecting drug status and drug maintenance treatment on health-related quality-of-life. METHODS: The two hundred and forty participants were patients enrolled in the MANIF cohort of HIV-HCV patients infected through injecting drug use who completed a self-administered questionnaire that included a health-related quality-of-life evaluation at the 42 month follow-up. A self-administered questionnaire collected information about socio-demographic characteristics, health-related quality-of-life (as measured by SF-12), injecting drug status and drug maintenance treatment, depressive symptoms, self-reported symptoms related to HIV treatment; clinical characteristics were obtained from medical records. RESULTS: Higher levels of both mental and physical health-related quality-of-life were found in patients with no depressive symptoms, abstinent from drugs and experiencing few drug related problems. Patients on drug maintenance treatment who stopped injecting drugs had better mental health-related quality-of-life than injectors but lower levels of mental health-related quality-of-life than abstinent patients. Mental health-related quality-of-life was also independently higher in patients receiving high social support. Physical health-related quality-of-life was independently higher for patients who stopped injection, whether on drug maintenance treatment or not, for patients on anti-retroviral treatment and for patients who remained in clinical stage A. CONCLUSIONS: Drug maintenance treatment seems to be associated with higher health-related quality-of-life among patients HIV-HCV co-infected by drug use, but it is still necessary to help patients cope with the mental impact of drug cessation. These results underline the need to provide regular psychological support and counselling for HIV-HCV co-infected injecting drug users during the medical follow-up for HIV-disease.

Adult↗

Can boosted atazanavir induce hyperlipotrophy?

Individual variations in glucuronation may result in differences in serum concentrations of atazanavir, resulting in lipodystrophy, illustrating the difficulty in adjusting dosage. We report the case of an HIV/HCV co-infected patient treated with atazanavir.

Aged↗

In vitro selection of mutants of Streptococcus pneumoniae resistant to macrolides and linezolid: relationship with susceptibility to penicillin G or macrolides.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the rate of acquisition of resistance to linezolid and macrolides in Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates with different levels of susceptibility to penicillin and erythromycin. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty strains of S. pneumoniae were tested by serial passages in subinhibitory concentrations of each antibiotic by the spiral method. The four copies of the 23S rRNA rrl gene of parent strains and linezolid-resistant mutants were amplified and sequenced. RESULTS: The rate of acquisition of macrolide resistance did not differ when C-14 and C-16 macrolides were tested. Resistance to linezolid in strains susceptible to penicillin and erythromycin was difficult to produce. For mutants with low-level resistance to linezolid the cut-off value of the MIC was between 6 and 8 mg/L depending on the strain. All linezolid-resistant mutants displayed a mutation in 2-4 copies of the 23S rRNA rrl gene, mainly the G2576U mutation (27/30) with an additional C2610U mutation observed in certain mutants. Two new mutations were also noted, namely C2612A and C2571G. In three linezolid-resistant mutants no mutation was identified within the studied domain, suggesting another mechanism of resistance. CONCLUSIONS: Linezolid resistance in pneumococcal strains susceptible to penicillin and macrolides was more difficult to obtain than with macrolides. Increased resistance to these agents may therefore influence the clinical use of linezolid.

Acetamides↗

Markov modelling of immunological and virological states in HIV-1 infected patients.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the evolution of HIV infected patients and to bring out some significant factors associated with this pathology. The main criteria revealing the State of illness is viral load measurement (VL). However the CD4 lymphocytes also represent an important marker as these reflect the State of the immune reservoir. Many studies have been carried out in this field and different models have been proposed with a view to a better understanding of this disease. Multi State Markov models defined in terms of CD4 counts, or in terms of viral load, have proved to be very useful tools for modelling HIV disease progression. The model we have developed in this study is based on both the CD4 lymphocytes counts and VL. Markov models are characterized by transition intensities. In this paper we explored several structures in succession. First, we used a homogeneous continuous time Markov process with four states defined by crossed values of CD4 and VL in a given patient at a given time. Then, the effect of certain covariates on the infection process was introduced into the model via the transition intensity functions, as with a Cox regression model. Since the hypothesis of homogeneity may be unrealistic in certain cases, we also considered piecewise homogeneous Markov models. Finally, the effects of covariates and time were combined in a piecewise homogeneous model with a covariate. We applied these methods to data from 1313 HIV-infected patients included in the NADIS cohort.

Age Factors↗

[Gnathostomiasis: an emerging parasitic disease?].

INTRODUCTION: Human gnathostomiasis is a parasitic disease caused by the ingestion of foods contaminated with the larvae of various species of Gnathostoma. This zoonosis is currently endemic in Asia and Central America. CASE REPORT: A 46-year-old French woman resident in Vietnam presented with intermittent pruritic swelling of the hand, present for one year, coupled with eosinophilia. The patient's history and serological testing confirmed the suspected diagnosis of gnathostomiasis. A favorable outcome was attained on treatment with albendazole. DISCUSSION: This case, together with several others recently reported in France and Europe, underlines the need to inform travelers and migrants to endemic regions of the risks associated with eating raw or marinated fish.

Albendazole↗

Intrahepatic CD4 T-Cell apoptosis is related to METAVIR score in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection leads to liver injury, which is thought to be immune-mediated. Apoptosis of hepatic T cells could influence histological damage. We quantified peripheral and intrahepatic T-cell apoptosis in 28 patients with chronic hepatitis C by using cytofluorometric techniques. METAVIR score and HCV plasma viral load were determined. Six liver biopsies, obtained from controls without chronic hepatitis during hepatobiliary surgery, served as controls. In patients, liver T-cell apoptosis was upregulated compared to peripheral T cells: 35 versus 7% for CD4+ and 56 versus 13% for CD8+ T cells (P < 0.001). Liver T-cell apoptosis levels from patients were increased compared to controls for both CD4+ (P = 0.041) and CD8+ T cells (P = 0.007). Nine patients exhibiting METAVIR scores A and F < or = 1 showed higher intrahepatic CD4+ T-cell apoptosis compared to the 19 patients with a higher METAVIR score (P = 0.001) and both histological activity and fibrosis were related to apoptosis level. There was also an inverse relationship between the level of intrahepatic CD8+ T-cell apoptosis and serum transaminase activity (P = 0.023). Our study shows immune compartmentalization, suggesting that the study of peripheral blood lymphocytes may not be fully relevant to the pathophysiology of HCV hepatitis, and that the severity of liver injury is inversely correlated with intrahepatic CD4+ T-cell apoptosis.

Adult↗

In the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy, why are HIV-infected patients still admitted to hospital for an inaugural opportunistic infection?

OBJECTIVES: To identify factors related to delayed testing, and delayed or interrupted care-seeking or treatment uptake, among HIV-infected patients. DESIGN: HIV-infected patients hospitalized for an opportunistic infection (OI) cases were included in a prospective study and compared with controls matched by age and sex who had regular follow-up and treatment. Patients were asked to complete a questionnaire about their therapeutic itinerary and their socioeconomic, psychological and medical characteristics. RESULTS: Seventy patients were matched with 140 controls. According to their therapeutic itinerary prior to admission, cases were subdivided into four groups among which three will be more particularly studied: nontested patients (NT) (24%; n=17), known HIV-infected patients with no medical follow-up (NF) (30%; n=21); and noncompliant patients (NC) (36%, n=25). Characteristics of NT and NF patients included a predominantly sexual mode of contamination (P=0.01), continuing occupational activity (P=0.01) despite a low mean Karnofsky index (P=0.001) and unfavourable virological and immunological parameters. NT patients displayed a low degree of anxiety, and lacked awareness concerning risk of contamination and HIV-related symptoms. HIV-status announcement (P=0.04) and the benefits of medical follow-up (P=0.05) were less favourably perceived by NF patients than by controls, and were associated with a high degree of anxiety in NF patients. NC patients had a weaker commitment to follow-up and treatment, and more frequent treatment discontinuation associated with a higher rate of interruption of follow-up in a context of social difficulties. CONCLUSIONS: Patients ignorant of their HIV status, patients NF and NC have very specific characteristics. More appropriate approaches are needed regarding screening and access to care in order to reduce the incidence of delayed care-seeking.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections↗

Triple nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor- vs. nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor-containing regimens as first-line therapy: efficacy and durability in a prospective cohort of French HIV-infected patients.

OBJECTIVE: Based on the short-term results of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) A5095 trial, zidovudine (ZDV)/lamivudine (3TC)/abacavir (ABC) is no longer recommended as a first-line antiretroviral regimen. Data on the efficacy of this triple nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) combination compared with the gold-standard nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) regimen could provide important information. METHODS: Patients were selected from three prospective cohorts of patients who received first-line therapy with ZDV/3TC plus an NNRTI or ABC, started after January 1998. Immunovirological changes and the proportion of treatment discontinuations were compared between groups. RESULTS: Of the 380 patients, 190 started on ABC [the triple-NRTI group (3N)] and 190 on NNRTI. At baseline, there was no statistical difference between the NNRTI and 3N groups for age (mean=38 years), sex (66% male) or CD4 cell count (mean=305 cells/muL). Mean baseline plasma HIV-1 viral load (pVL) was higher in the 3N group (4.6 vs. 4.3 log10 HIV-1 RNA copies/mL: P<0.01). Lower and higher estimates of median pVL decrease at month 24 were 2.05 and 4.76 log10 copies/mL in the 3N group, and 1.73 and 4.31 log10 copies/mL in the NNRTI group (not significant). CD4 cell count evolution did not differ between groups. Treatment discontinuation occurred in 45% vs. 44% of patients in the NNRTI and 3N groups, respectively, after median durations of 9 and 4 months, respectively (P=0.02). CONCLUSIONS: In this prospective cohort, 3N and NNRTI regimens as first-line therapy produced similar immunovirological responses.

Adult↗

Skin manifestations of West Nile virus infection.

West Nile virus (WNV) infection is a potentially lethal arbovirus infection. Many notable outbreaks have occurred during the last few years throughout the world, including Europe and the USA. The severity of the disease is mainly related to the neurological complications. A maculopapular exanthema is reported as a clinical sign of the disease. Recently an outbreak of WNV infection occurred in southern France. Three patients out of 6 had a similar skin roseola-like eruption. The cluster of 3 cases of similar febrile roseola of unexplained cause during the same week led to the diagnosis of the first WNV human outbreak in France for 40 years.

Adult↗

[The use of fluoroquinolone plasma levels by physicians].

OBJECTIVE: To assess how physicians use the results of fluoroquinolone plasma concentrations. METHODS: A retrospective study was carried out on all the patients of the Infectiology department of the University Hospital in Nice who had undergone measurement of ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin or pefloxacin plasma levels between the 1st of January 2001 and the 31st of May 2002. RESULTS: Seventy eight patients were included. Median duration of treatment was 90 days. In 43% of cases, the patients had also received an enzyme inducer (rifampin in 90% cases). The minimum inhibitory concentration was requested 12 times. In 26% of cases, a first inadequate concentration was not followed by a second control analysis. We noted that at the start of treatment, 56% of patients exhibited inadequate levels, and the dose of fluoroquinolone was hence increased by the physician in 40% of cases. We noted 4 bacteriological relapses, all within a context of insufficient dose, with selection of a resistant mutant three times. DISCUSSION: Physicians do not appear to use the fluoroquinolone plasma levels to their best advantage.

Anti-Infective Agents↗

[Type of child care and nasopharyngeal S. pneumoniae and H. influenzae carriage in children in the Alpes-Maritimes].

OBJECTIVE: To compare the prevalence rates of nasopharyngeal carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae (SP) and of SP with diminished susceptibility to penicillin (PDSP) according to two types of day care, i.e. children in group day-care (GDC) and those attended by a child minder (CM) before and after the implementation of a local public health campaign promoting prudent antibiotic use in pediatric care. METHODS: Two cross sectional studies were conducted in each care setting in 1999, 2000 and 2002, on a random sample of children. RESULTS: Initial prevalence rates for SP before the campaign were 54% in the GDC group in 1999 and 34% in the CM group in 2000, with 63% and 52% PDSP, respectively. In 2002 theses rates were 58 and 33% for SP (p<10(-5)) and 64 and 53% for PDSP, respectively. The proportion of children who received antibiotics decreased in both care settings between the two surveys, from 47 to 37% in the CM group (p=0.03) and from 60 to 51% in the GDC group (p=0.03). CONCLUSION: These results are in favor of the child minder setting and also illustrate the positive impact of a public health campaign on the frequency of antibiotic prescriptions.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗