ARE THERE CLINICAL AND LABORATORY PREDICTORS OF 5-YEAR MORTALITY IN HIV-INFECTED CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH HEMOPHILIA

To determine factors associated with survival in a cohort of HIV-infec ted children and adolescents with hemophilia, an analysis of the 5-yea r mortality data for 207 HIV-infected young men was performed to exami ne the effect of selected clinical covariates on survival. The subject s were enrolled into the Hemophilia Growth and Development Study cohor t from 1989 to 1990. Estimated mean time since infection at baseline w as 6.7 years and mean estimated age at infection was 6.5 years. The ba seline characteristics examined for their association with the hazard of death over the 5-year follow-up period were the following: absolute CD4(+) cell count, hemoglobin status, skin test anergy, results of br ain magnetic resonance imaging, non-hemophilia-related muscle atrophy (NHRMA), height for age, and impaired neuropsychological functioning a s measured by the Vineland Adaptive Behavior and the Pediatric Behavio r Scales. In all, 66 deaths occurred over the 5-year follow-up, 62 of whom met the 1987 (n = 56) or 1993 (n = 6) U.S. Centers for Disease Co ntrol and Prevention (CDC) definition of AIDS. Although each of the ch aracteristics listed previously significantly increased the hazard of death by Cox. proportional hazard regression models, only NHRMA remain ed a significant predictor of AIDS-related death when added to models that included each of the other cited baseline covariates.