Efficacy and safety of an anti-retroviral combination regimen including either efavirenz or lopinavir–ritonavir with a backbone of two nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors

The efficacy and safety of a combination regimen including either efavirenz or lopinavir–ritonavir was examined in a cohort of 65 patients positive for human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1). Both the efavirenz (n = 33, 18 anti-retroviral naive) and lopinavir–ritonavir (n = 32, 15 naive) regimens achieved significant changes from baseline CD4 cell counts and HIV RNA levels after 108 weeks (p < 0.01). Despite diminished immunological and...