Causes of visual acuity loss among patients with AIDS and cytomegalovirus retinitis in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy.

PURPOSE: To quantitate the frequencies of the common causes of visual acuity loss for patients with AIDS and cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).

DESIGN: Multicenter prospective observational study.

PARTICIPANTS: Three hundred seventy-nine patients (494 eyes) with CMV retinitis.

METHODS: Follow-up every 3 months with medical history, ophthalmologic examination, and laboratory testing.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Loss of visual acuity across the 20/50 or worse and 20/200 or worse thresholds and doubling of the visual angle; frequencies of causes of such vision loss.

RESULTS: Overall, involvement of the posterior pole with CMV retinitis (zone 1 retinitis) accounted for approximately one half of incident visual acuity loss of 20/50 or worse, 20/200 or worse, and of doubling of the visual angle. Cataract and retinitis-related retinal detachment were the second and third most common causes of vision loss, accounting for 22% to 33% and 13% to 20% of vision loss for the 3 outcomes, respectively. In subset analysis, cataract and cystoid macular edema (CME) accounted for approximately 50% of incident vision loss in eyes of patients with longstanding CMV retinitis and immune recovery at baseline, but these complications accounted for <10% of incident vision loss in eyes of patients with newly diagnosed CMV retinitis at baseline. Of eyes that had a vision-threatening complication of CMV retinitis, eyes that developed retinal detachment had the highest risk of vision loss, with 100% of eyes developing visual impairment (20/50 or worse vision) and 42% of eyes developing legal blindness (20/200 or worse vision) at 12 months after diagnosis of the retinal detachment.

CONCLUSIONS: In the HAART era, zone 1 involvement and retinal detachment remain the most common causes of visual acuity loss among patients with CMV retinitis. Cataract and CME also are common causes of loss of visual acuity, primarily in those patients with HAART-induced immune recovery.