Impact of Antiretroviral Therapy on Metabolic, Skeletal, and Cardiovascular Parameters

A5260s is the optional, metabolic substudy of a phase III, prospective, randomized clinical trial (A5257). For complete details about the parent study A5257, please see ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT00811954. Some participants in study A5257 were asked to participate in substudy A5260s. Not all participants were asked since A5260s only took place at a subset of A5257 sites. Participants who agreed to participate in substudy A5260s were enrolled at the same time as their enrollment in A5257. No interventions were given as part of A5260s, but all A5260s participants underwent blood draws, self-administered questionnaire responses (related to physical activity and body image), ultrasound scans to measure the thickness of the carotid artery in the neck and brachial artery flow mediated dilation in the arm, and computerized topography (CT) and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans to measure bone mineral density and body fat. The duration of A5260s study was between 2 and 3 years (96 and 144 weeks), depending on when the participant enrolled. The study was designed to enroll a total of 330 participants with at least 110 per a group; each group represented a different randomized drug combination as defined and assigned by the main study A5257. Cohort A: Atazanavir (ATV) + Ritonavir (RTV) + Emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (FTC/TDF) Cohort B: Raltegravir (RAL) + FTC/TDF Cohort C: Darunavir (DRV) + RTV + FTC/TDF All participants were asked to return for A5260s clinic visits at weeks 4, 24, 48 96 and 144 and participated in all clinical evaluations. No clinical evaluation was restricted to a subset of A5260s participants. If a participant chose to discontinue participation in the substudy, the participant was able to continue in study A5257. However, a participant discontinuing participation from A5257 was also removed from A5260s. Additionally, a participant's decision to discontinue or switch study drugs in the main study did not impact participation and follow-up clinic visits in A5260s.