What are the objectives of DART?
DART is a six year clinical trial of anti-HIV therapy in 3300 patients with advanced HIV disease or AIDS in Uganda and Zimbabwe. The trial aims to investigate two main questions: can anti-HIV drugs be given in the absence of routine laboratory tests, relying on clinical assessments instead; and can anti-HIV drugs be given intermittently rather than continuously to provide a similar level of benefit to patients but with less toxicity.To address the first question all patients will have laboratory tests carried out but half of them (selected at random) do not have their results returned to their doctors throughout the trial, so that the clinical examination alone is used to make health management decisions. For all patients however, doctors are able to request (and see the results of) laboratory tests for side effects if there is a concern that the clinical assessment alone is not sufficient to make a decision. In addition all laboratory test results that are considered as severe (grade
