Strategies for Management of Antiretroviral Therapy (SMART) study

Introduction

NIH sponsored study Goal: to compare long-term consequences of 2 antiretroviral management strategies:

• episodic antiretroviral therapy to maintain CD4 counts > 250/mm3
• continuous antiretroviral therapy

Median follow-up: 24 months

Results:

• disease progression twice as high with episodic therapy
• no decrease in risk for major cardiovascular or metabolic adverse effects in episodic therapy group

More general terms

• clinical trial