Hypertension and blood pressure changes with dolutegravir or comparator antiretroviral therapy in randomized trials...

To date, there are limited published data from randomized trials evaluating the effects of integrase strand transfer inhibitor-based regimens, including dolutegravir-based antiretroviral therapy (ART), on blood pressure (BP) in people with HIV-1 (PWH).

This analysis evaluated BP changes from baseline and incident hypertension among ART-naive PWH randomized to dolutegravir-based three-drug ART or alternative comparator ART (cART) across pooled Phase 2/3 studies.

In this post hoc analysis of Phase 2/3 SPRING-1, SPRING-2, SINGLE and FLAMINGO clinical trials, BP was assessed at baseline, Week (W) 48 and W96. In PWH without evidence of hypertension at baseline, incident hypertension was defined as a single systolic BP ≥ 140 mmHg and/or diastolic BP ≥ 90 mmHg measured after a 5 min rest, a hypertension adverse event and/or antihypertensive medication use during follow-up. Baseline factors associated with incident hypertension at W96 were assessed through multivariate analyses. BP changes between dolutegravir and cART were also assessed.

Among 2345 randomized participants, 1815 (77%) had no evidence of hypertension at baseline; 927 received dolutegravir-based ART and 888 received cART. Through W96, incident hypertension did not differ between groups [dolutegravir, 23% (n = 180/779); cART, 21% (n = 139/665); adjusted OR, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.79-1.33]; ∼1% of participants initiated antihypertensive medication through W96 (dolutegravir, n = 3; cART, n = 1). At W96, no significant BP changes from baseline were observed (systolic BP, P = 0.741; diastolic BP, P = 0.683).

Relative to non-dolutegravir-containing cART, dolutegravir-containing three-drug ART did not show any impact on incident hypertension in ART-naive PWH without evidence of hypertension at baseline through W96.