Prednisone for the prevention of paradoxical tuberculosis-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome
|Date of Web Publication||16-Jul-2019|
Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
|How to cite this article:|
. Prednisone for the prevention of paradoxical tuberculosis-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome. Curr Med Issues 2019;17:12-4
|How to cite this URL:|
. Prednisone for the prevention of paradoxical tuberculosis-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome. Curr Med Issues [serial online] 2019 [cited 2019 Aug 25];17:12-4. Available from: 
Summary of Study
Source: This is a summary of the study: prednisone for the prevention of paradoxical tuberculosis-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome. New England Journal of Medicine. 2018. Summary prepared by Dr. Ann Helen Prasad, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.
Clinical Question: Is the use of prophylactic prednisone against paradoxical tuberculosis-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome safe and effective?
Authors' conclusions: The prophylactic use of prednisone in the first 4 weeks of initiating antiretroviral therapy is safe and effective against paradoxical tuberculosis-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome
| Why This Study|| |
Tuberculosis is the most common opportunistic infection in patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Early initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) after the initiation of antituberculosis therapy increases the survival rate of patients affected by both HIV and tuberculosis. However, the early initiation of ART increases the risk of tuberculosis-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS), which increases the morbidity and risk of hospitalization. To prevent IRIS, the use of prophylactic glucocorticoids has been considered.
The administration of adjunctive glucocorticoids in patients with tubercular meningitis and pericarditis reduced mortality and complications., However, in patients who had both HIV and tuberculosis, it increased the risk of adverse events., This study aimed to assess whether prophylactic prednisone safely reduces the incidence of tuberculosis-associated IRIS in patients with HIV infection with fewer than 100 CD4 cells per microliter, who were initiated with ART within 30 days of initiating tuberculosis treatment.
| Results|| |
Prednisone was found to be protective against paradoxical tuberculosis-associated IRIS. Thirty-nine (32.5%) participants in the prednisone group and 56 (46.7%) participants in the placebo group developed IRIS according to the International Network for the Study of HIV-associated IRIS (INSHI) criteria. The relative risk (RR) was found to be 0.70 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.51–0.96; P = 0.03).
Open-label glucocorticoid use (RR, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.27–0.81) and the presence of a major INSHI criterion (RR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.37–0.87) were rarer in the prednisone than in the placebo group.
Prednisone was safe to use in patients on ART initiated within 30 days of starting antituberculosis treatment. Grade 3 clinical adverse events were rarer in the prednisone group than in the placebo group (RR, 0.80, 95% CI, 0.44–0.89; P = 0.01). Severe infections, Grade 4 clinical adverse events, adverse drug reactions, CD4 counts at week 12, and HIV-1 RNA viral loads were not significantly different between the two groups.
In patients with tubercular meningitis and pericarditis (without HIV infection), glucocorticoids have been successfully used to reduce the inflammatory complications., Since IRIS is an inflammatory reaction, it was hypothesized that the use of glucocorticoids could reduce the risk of IRIS. However, the use of glucocorticoids in the early phase of ART has been reported to increase the mortality and risk of hospitalization associated with HIV-related cancers, such as Kaposi's sarcoma., However, in these previous studies, either glucocorticoid other than prednisone or high doses of prednisone were used.
In this study, a low dose of prednisone (40 mg/day for 14 days followed by 20 mg/day for 14 days) initiated within 48 h of ART was used to determine whether the prophylactic use of prednisone is safe and effective against tuberculosis-associated IRIS in patients at high risk for developing it.
The study shows that the prophylactic use of prednisone is safe in patients with HIV and tuberculosis who are being initiated on ART within 30 days of starting antituberculosis treatment. Grade 3 adverse reactions were rarer in patients who were administered prednisone than those who were administered the placebo regimen; whereas, other complications were not significantly different between the two groups. This study found that low-dose prednisone administered within 48 h of initiating ART that is started within 30 days of antituberculosis treatment is protective against paradoxical tuberculosis-associated IRIS.