Basis: Analysis of the variations of HIV-1 viral load (VL) in a cohort of patients.
Material and methods: A retrospective study was designed for the calculation and analysis of the differences between two consecutive measurements of VL in a cohort of 1,336 patients along a 48 months follow-up.
Results: At the beginning of the follow-up period the highest proportion of patients with decreases of VL (54.2% in their first measurement, at 0-75 days) as well as the least proportion of patients both without changes (30.7%) and with increases of their VL (15.1%), were registered. The proportion of patients with decreases was declining along the study period. More than half of the patients did not experience significant variations in the measurements carried out.
Conclusions: The significant decreases of VL appeared in our series at the beginning of the follow-up period, and a growing proportion of individuals showed elevations of the VL along the period studied.