Echocardiography in Patients with HIV Infection

Factors influencing left ventricular diastolic dysfunction on echocardiography of people living with HIV in Kunming, China

BACKGROUND

The widespread use of antiretroviral therapy has prolonged the survival of people living with HIV (PLWH). Among these patients, co-existing cardiovascular diseases, particularly left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD), are receiving increasing attention.

METHODS

We recruited 386 patients in the PLWH group and 386 sex- and age (± 3 years)-matched individuals in the HIV-negative group, and used logistic regression to determine the risk factors of LVDD.

RESULTS

Compared to the HIV-negative group, PLWH had a significantly higher prevalence of smoking (p < .001), alcohol consumption (p < .001), hypertension (p = .002), diabetes (p = .020), and hyperlipidemia (p < .001) and a lower prevalence of body mass index (BMI) ≥ 24.0 kg/m2 (p < .001). The prevalence of LVDD on echocardiography was significantly higher in PLWH than in the HIV-negative group (25.9% vs 16.1%, p = .001). The multivariate analysis showed that non-youth (OR = 8.666; 95%CI = 4.310-17.459; p < .001), BMI ≥ 24.0 kg/m2 (OR = 1.992; 95% CI = 1.007-3.939; p = .048), hypertension (OR = 1.888; 95% CI = 1.044-3.415; p = .036), hyperlipidemia (OR = 1.911; 95% CI = 1.068-3.418; p = .029), and HIV infection (OR = 2.003; 95%CI = 1.341-2.992; p = .001) were risk factors for LVDD.

CONCLUSION

The rate of echocardiographic abnormalities was higher in PLWH. LVDD was associated with non-youth, BMI ≥ 24.0 kg/m2, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and living with HIV.

Echocardiographic findings and associated factors in HIV-infected patients at a tertiary hospital in Ethiopia

Noncommunicable diseases including cardiovascular diseases are becoming an important part of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) care. Echocardiography is a useful noninvasive tool to assess cardiac disease and different echocardiographic abnormalities have been seen previously. The aim of this study was to investigate the echocardiographic abnormalities in HIV-infected patients and factors associated with the findings. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 285 patients with HIV infection including collection of clinical and echocardiographic data. Logistic regression was used to examine the association between echocardiographic abnormalities and associated factors with variables with a P value of <.05 in the multivariate model considered statistically significant. Diastolic dysfunction was the most common abnormality seen in 30% of the participants followed by ischemic heart disease (19.3%), left ventricular hypertrophy (10.2%), enlarged left atrium (8.1%), pulmonary hypertension (3.6%), and pericardial effusion (2.1%). Diastolic dysfunction was independently associated with increasing age, elevated blood pressure, and left ventricular hypertrophy while ischemic heart disease was associated with male gender, increasing age, and abnormal fasting blood glucose. Left ventricular hypertrophy was associated with increasing age and blood pressure and the later was associated with left atrial enlargement. The level of immunosuppression did not affect echocardiography findings. A high prevalence of echocardiographic abnormalities was found. Male gender, age >50 years, elevated blood pressure, and elevated fasting blood glucose were associated with echocardiographic abnormalities. Appropriate follow-up and treatment of echocardiographic abnormalities is needed.