VISUAL PROGNOSIS OF AIDS PATIENTS WITH CYTOMEGALOVIRUS RETINITIS

A prospective study of visual acuity (VA) was performed in a cohort of 147 AIDS patients with cytomegalovirus retinitis (CMVR), Patients wer e treated according to standard regimes, and corrected VA was recorded at regular intervals from presentation until death, Follow-up was 6 w eeks to 5 years (mean 30 weeks), Fifty patients (34%) had bilateral CM VR at initial presentation; at death 81 patients (55%) had bilateral d isease, Thirty-one eyes initially uninfected developed CMVR during fol low-up, Of 228 infected eyes, VA at presentation was 6/12 or better in 182 eyes (80%) and 6/60 or better in 215 eyes (94%) At death, VA was 6/12 or better in 112 eyes (49%) and 6/60 or better in 171 eyes (75%), VA in the better eye at death was 6/12 or better in 113 of 147 patien ts (77%), 6/24 or better in 135 patients (92%) and worse than 6/60 in only 7 patients (5%), Treatment of AIDS-related CMVR minimises loss of vision and may protect previously uninfected eyes, prolonging visual independence.