Efficacy of triple drug regimen of amikacin, ethambutol and rifabutin in AIDS patients with symptomatic Mycobacterium avium complex infection.
Treatment with ethambutol 15 mg/kg, rifabutin 6 mg/kg and amikacin 15 mg/kg (IV for 2-4 weeks) in 31 HIV infected patients with severe immunodeficiency and infection caused by Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) was evaluated in a retrospective study. The patients had one or more of the following clinical features: fever 31, weight loss 13, cough 10, pleurisy I, pericarditis 2, diarrhoea 12, peritonitis I. MAC was cultured from blood in 29, bone marrow in six, sputum in nine, faeces in 15, bowel biopsy in six and liver biopsy in four patients. Twenty-two of the 31 patients showed treatment response after a median time of 14 days, and five had a relapse successfully treated with another course of amikacin. Median survival time was 8 months.