Survival and infectious processes in patients with AIDS: analysis according to initial serum vitamin A levels - Abstract

Alternative Medicine Review, Dec, 2001

Patients with AIDS (n = 39) were followed up for a maximum period of 36 weeks, after which the types and topographies of infectious complications presented and patient survival were analyzed and correlated with the vitamin A levels presented by the patients at the beginning of clinical follow-up. Twenty-one (53.8%) patients presented serum retinol levels below 1.6 [micro]Mol/L, 12 (57%) of whom had values lower than 1.05 [micro]Mol/L. There was no correlation between low serum vitamin A levels and the types or topographies of the infectious complications that occurred during the follow-up period. Although mean survival at the end of the 36 months follow-up period was similar for the two groups, patients with retinol deficiency presented a lower probability of survival during the first 24 months of follow-up compared to patients without hypovitaminosis A (8.44 x 1.42 months; p = 0.003).

Figueiredo JF, Lorenzato MM, Silveira SA, et al. Rev Soc Bras Med Trop 2001;34:429-435. [Article in Portuguese]