A STUDY OF CARDIAC MANIFESTATIONS IN HIV PATIENTS

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