Abstract:
AIM:
The advances in diagnosis, treatment, monitoring of HIV infection and the
availability of antiretroviral drugs have lead to improved survival of patients but this has
resulted manifestations of late stage disease including cardiac manifestations. This study was
intended to find out the cardiac manifestations in HIV patients and to correlate them with
CD4 count.
MATERIAL and METHODS :
This was a cross-sectional prospective study carried out in 148 patients with
serologically positive HIV status, aged between 18 to 60 years , admitted in BLDE’s Shri
B.M.Patil hospital with or without opportunistic infections. History collection, clinical
examination, ECG, echocardiography, fasting lipid profile and other laboratory investigations
were performed as a part of work up and all the patients were treated accordingly.
Results :
Majority of the patients were males (73%) and the commonest age group was 31 to
40 years (38.5%). The CD4 count between 50-199/cum in 33.8% and <50/cum was found in
27.7% of the patients. Cardiac manifestations were present in 56.1% of the patients. Sinus
tachycardia was the commonest cardiac manifestation observed on ECG (17.6%). The other
prominent cardiac manifestations included pericardial effusion (17.6%) , dilated
cardiomyopathy (13.5%) , valvular heart disease (12.2%) , few patients has diastolic and
xii
systolic dysfunctions (8% ) and pulmonary arterial hypertension (2.7%). Cardiac
manifestations were significantly high in patients with CD4 count <50/cum (74.42%;
p=0.002).
Conclusion and interpretation
Patients with HIV infection are at higher risk of developing cardiac
manifestations and reduced CD4 count poses maximum risk along with longer
durations of HIV status and ART treatment
