Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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United Press International; Tuesday December 2, 1997 - 3:19 PM EST
Ed Susman
At the Radiological Society of North America, doctors say today brain scans prove protease inhibitors along with other anti-viral medications change the course of AIDS dementia complex sufficiently to allow some terminally ill, nurse-dependent patients to return to work.
Dr. Christopher Filippi of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City, tells United Press International, ``We did not expect to see this improvement in a brain disease that had been considered irreversible.''
In nine endstage AIDS patients who underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Filippi says the brain scans showed no change in one patient; stabilization in four patients and reversal of the disease in four others.
More than half the people infected with AIDS develop the disease known as HIV-encephalopathy _ in which white matter of the brain is attacked, causing loss of motor function and memory.
Filippi, assistant professor of radiology and director of neuroradiology at Weiler Hospital, says, ``Until now, HIV-encephalopathy has been considered to be relentlessly progressive. This is the first study that demonstrates clinical neurological improvement with the use of protease inhibitors that correlates with an improvement seen on brain MRI scans.''
Filippi says the patients in the study had less than a year to live and many were nurse-dependent when they began taking the three-drug cocktail containing protease inhibitors.
All are still alive 14 months later, some improved enough to get around on their own and in a few cases their short-term memory problems lifted enough for them to return to work.
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