Fibrosis-4 index predicts mortality in HIV/HCV co-infected patients receiving combination antiretroviral therapy in rural China

End-stage liver disease (ESLD) is among leading causes of death for people living with HIV and HCV. Little is known how liver fibrosis score predicts mortality in HIV/HCV co-infected population under combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). A retrospective cohort study of 691 HIV/HCV co-infected patients receiving cART in Yunnan, China from 2005 to 2016 was carried out to explore the association between Fibrosis-4 index (FIB-4) and all-cause mortality. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) for FIB-4 and covariates. After a median follow-up of 4.8 years with a total follow-up time of 3,696 person-years (PY), 131 deaths occurred and the all-cause mortality was 3.5 per 100 PY. The mortality was 2.9 (95% CI: 2.3-3.5)/100 PY for the FIB-4 ≤ 3.25 group and 5.8 (4.2-7.4)/100 PY for the FIB-4 > 3.25 group at baseline. People with FIB-4 changed from mild to advanced group showed HR of 1.81 (95% CI: 1.01-3.25) for death, and with FIB-4 sustaining advanced showed HR of 3.11 (1.75-5.54), both compared to those with FIB-4 remained mild, while lower risk of death was observed among married people (HR = 0.63, 95% CI: 0.41-0.99) compared to unmarried, among those with most recent CD4+ T cell counts between 200 and 350 cells/μL (0.50, 0.30-0.86) and > 350 cells/μL (0.25, 0.15-0.41) compared to CD4 under 200 cells/μL. Advanced and progressive liver fibrosis is a strong predictor of all-cause mortality in HIV/HCV co-infected patients under cART in China.