Background: Infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is associated with an increased prevalence of hypertriglyceridemia, which is more common in advanced stages of disease. Nevertheless, the role of hypertriglyceridemia as a predictive marker of progression of disease and/or mortality is not fully elucidated.
Methods: One-hundred nineteen patients with HIV infection attended at our Outpatient Clinic or hospitalized in our Service were retrospectively studied. At the beginning of the study and every six months a complete medical history and physical examination were obtained, with a complete blood count, serum biochemistry, total lymphocytes and CD4 subpopulations, cholesterol, triglycerides and IgA. With comparative purposes cholesterol and triglyceride values were also determined in a control group of healthy subjects with the same age and gender. The relationship between triglyceride levels and the other clinical and analytical parameters was evaluated by means of the Pearson linear correlation. The risk for developing clinical disease and survival were studied by the method proposed by Kaplan and Meier.
Results: The mean age of patients was 27 +/- 6 years and the male/female ratio was 86/33. Eighty-three percent (99) of patients consumed drugs parenterally. Compared with the control group, patients with HIV infection had hypertriglyceridemia (159 +/- 80 mg/dl vs 79 +/- 53 mg/dl) and hypocholesterolemia (143 +/- 41 mg/dl vs 174 +/- 36 mg/dl) (p < 0.05). There was a positive correlation between triglycerides and IgA levels (p < 0.01) and a negative correlation with serum albumin (p < 0.05). A higher risk towards progression of disease was not observed among patients with hypertriglyceridemia (TG > 143 mg/dl) in non-AIDS infected patients, nor mortality in the overall group.
Conclusions: HIV infected patients have a higher prevalence of hypertriglyceridemia and hypocholesterolemia. Plasma triglycerides were not useful as a prognostic factor for the development of disease nor as mortality risk.