PMC

Trial schema. Trial entry, randomisation and treatment. ART anti-retroviral therapy, EFA early fungicidal activity, SAE serious adverse event

Early fungicidal activity and mortality. The left hand panel shows the crude mortality rate (per person year) calculated over the first 2 weeks of treatment according to early fungicidal activity (EFA) in the 450 patients of the 501 anti-retroviral therapy (ART)-naive patients recruited in the studies listed in Reference 2 with slope (EFA) data. Patients have been stratified by EFA, with the slowest rate of clearance being 0–0.1 log₁₀CFU/ml/day (equating to a 0 to 0.1 log drop in colony-forming units (CFU) per ml of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) per day) and the highest rate of clearance being 0.5+ (equating to a half-log₁₀ drop or more in CFU counts/ml of CSF per day). The right hand panel shows Kaplan Meier survival curves for the 501 ART-naive patients recruited into the studies listed in Reference 2 over the first 10 weeks of treatment, stratified by EFA. The slowest rates of clearance are indicated by the solid black line (EFA 0–0.1 decline in log₁₀CFU/ml/day) and the most rapid rates of clearance are indicated by the small dotted line (EFA >0.3 decline in log₁₀CFU/ml/day)

The effect of various regimens of amphotericin B for experimental cryptococcal meningoencephalitis. Amphotericin B deoxycholate 1 mg/kg was administered daily (b), every third day (c), as an abbreviated regimen for 3 consecutive days (d) and once (e). The solid arrows show the time of drug administration. The data in a-e represent the time course of infection in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Each line represents the fungal burden in an individual rabbit. f shows the fungal density in the cerebrum at the end of the experiment. Each bar represents the mean fungal density ± standard error of the mean. There is no statistically significant difference in the cerebral fungal density of rabbits receiving daily therapy versus those receiving an abbreviated regimen of 1 mg/kg at 48, 72 and 96 h relative to inoculation: *p = 1.00 (not significant), **p = 0.006, ***p = <0.001, ****p = <0.001, *****p = 1.00 (not significant). CFU, colony-forming units. From Livermore J, Howard SJ, Sharp AD, et al. Efficacy of an abbreviated induction regimen of amphotericin B deoxycholate for cryptococcal meningoencephalitis: 3 days of therapy is equivalent to 14 days. MBio 2013; 5 (1): e00725-13. With permission