@article {3732,
	title = {Antiretroviral Therapy Reduces the Rate of Hepatic Decompensation among HIV- and Hepatitis C Virus-Coinfected Veterans.},
	journal = {Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America},
	year = {2013},
	month = {2013 Nov 27},
	abstract = {Background.  HIV coinfection accelerates the rate of liver disease outcomes in individuals chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). It remains unclear to what degree combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) protects against HCV-associated liver failure. Methods.  We evaluated 10,090 HIV/HCV-coinfected males from the Veterans Aging Cohort Study Virtual Cohort, who had not initiated ART at entry, for incident hepatic decompensation between 1996 and 2010. We defined ART initiation as the first pharmacy fill date of a qualifying antiretroviral regimen of >=3 drugs from >=2 classes. Hepatic decompensation was defined as the first occurrence of one hospital discharge diagnosis or two outpatient diagnoses for ascites, spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, or esophageal variceal hemorrhage. To account for potential confounding by indication, marginal structural models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) of hepatic decompensation, comparing initiation of ART to non-initiation. Results.  We observed 645 hepatic decompensation events in 46,444 person-years of follow-up (incidence rate: 1.4 per 100 person-years). Coinfected patients who initiated ART had a significantly reduced rate of hepatic decompensation relative to non-initiators (HR=0.72, 95\% CI: 0.54, 0.94). When we removed individuals with HIV RNA <=400 copies/mL at baseline (assuming they may have received undocumented ART at entry), the hazard ratio became more pronounced (HR=0.59, 95\% CI: 0.43, 0.82). Conclusions.  Initiation of ART significantly reduced the rate of hepatic decompensation by 28-41\% on average. These results suggest that ART should be administered to HIV/HCV-coinfected patients to lower the risk of end-stage liver disease.},
	issn = {1537-6591},
	doi = {10.1002/pds.3517},
	author = {Anderson, Jeffrey P and Tchetgen, Eric J Tchetgen and Lo Re, Vincent and Tate, Janet P and Williams, Paige L and Seage, George R and Horsburgh, C Robert and Lim, Joseph K and Goetz, Matthew Bidwell and Rimland, David and Rodriguez-Barradas, Maria C and Butt, Adeel A and Klein, Marina B and Justice, Amy C}
}
