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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2008 May 2.
Published in final edited form as: Clin Infect Dis. 2007 Sep 4;45(8):1062–1070. doi: 10.1086/521933

Table 2.

Nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI)–associated toxicities.

NRTI,a toxicity Probability, %b Treatment change Quality-of-life reduction, % Reference(s)
Tenofovir, nephrotoxicity 7–14 Switch to abacavir … [32]
Abacavir, hypersensitivity reaction 8 Switch to zidovudine … [1]
Zidovudinec
 Anemia 3 Switch to stavudine … [1]
 Lipoatrophy 15 … 13 [29, 33, 35]
Stavudinec
 Lipoatrophy 45 … 13 [29, 33, 35]
 Neuropathy 26–44 … 6 [26, 31, 34]
Didanosine,c neuropathy 18 … 6 [26, 31, 34]
a

All NRTI regimens include a 0.3%–1% probability of severe lactic acidosis, with a 49% probability of death due to severe lactic acidosis [27].

b

Data are the probability that the toxicity will ever occur while the patient is receiving a regimen containing the referenced drug.

c

In addition, the probability of pancreatitis is 1% for zidovudine, 3%–5% for stavudine, and 2% for didanosine [28, 30]. We assumed, on the basis of clinical judgment (by K.A.F. and R.P.W.), that pancreatitis results in a 50% decrement in quality of life for 1 month.