Initial Antituberculous Regimen with Better Drug Penetration into Cerebrospinal Fluid Reduces Mortality in HIV Infected Patients with Tuberculous Meningitis: Data from an HIV Observational Cohort Study

Table 1

Baseline characteristics and differences between patients who received the standard antituberculous regimen and those who received a new antituberculous regimen with better cerebrospinal fluid penetration.

	Overall	Standard iATR	New iATR	𝑃-value
	𝑁=203	𝑁=138	𝑁=65
Continuous variables	Median (IQR)	Median (IQR)	Median (IQR)	Wilcoxon rank-sum test
Age (years)	36.1 (30.3−43.4)	36.5 (30.9−45)	36 (30−42)	0.421
CD4 count (cells/𝜇L)	107 (52−173)	108 (51.5−186)	107 (52−163)	0.744
Haemoglobin (g/dL)	10.3 (8.5−12)	10.5 (8.6−12.1)	9.7 (8.1−11.3)	0.182
Albumin (g/dL)	3.4 (2.7−4)	3.5 (2.8−3.9)	3.3 (2.6−4)	0.347
Sodium (mEq/L)	132 (126.8−136)	132.9 (126.9−136.7)	131.6 (126.8−134.9)	0.386
Categorical variables	𝑁 (%)	𝑁 (%)	𝑁 (%)	Chi^2 test
Gender				0.69
Female	60 (29.56)	42 (30.66)	18 (27.69)
Male	143 (70.44)	95 (69.34)	47 (72.31)
Disadvantaged community				0.703
No	140 (68.97)	94 (68.12)	46 (70.77)
Yes	63 (31.03)	44 (31.88)	19 (29.23)
Homeless				0.579
No	193 (95.07)	132 (95.65)	61 (93.85)
Yes	10 (4.93)	6 (4.35)	4 (6.15)
Illiterate				0.75
No	97 (47.78)	67 (48.55)	30 (46.15)
Yes	106 (52.22)	71 (51.45)	35 (53.85)
Depressed consciousness				0.172
No	114 (56.16)	82 (59.42)	32 (49.23)
Yes	89 (43.84)	56 (40.58)	33 (50.77)
Previous tuberculosis				0.407
No	163 (80.3)	113 (81.88)	50 (76.92)
Yes	40 (19.7)	25 (18.12)	15 (23.08)
Months on ART				0.755
>6 months	37 (18.23)	27 (19.57)	10 (15.38)
<6 months	47 (22.15)	32 (23.19)	15 (23.08)
No ART	119 (58.62)	79 (57.25)	40 (61.54)

ART: antiretroviral therapy; iATR: initial antituberculous regimen; IQR: interquartile range.