Metabolic Abnormalities in HIV-Positive Patients Receiving Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy.

Background and objective: dyslipidemia has become a common problem in human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) disease, especially in patients on combination antiretroviral therapy. in this study we aimed to determine the prevalence of dyslipidemia and metabolic abnormalities in 2 groups of hiv infected patients receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (haart) and antiretroviral-naive patients. patients and methods: forty hiv infected patients treated by haart as a case group (6 femalesand 34 males) with a mean age of 40.7 ± 10 years and 15 hiv naïve as a control group (2 females and 13 males) with a mean age of 38.40 ± 8.3 enrolled in this study. the two groups were well matched in respect to age, sex and cd4 cell counts. a standardized questionnaire with epidemiological, clinical, and therapeutic data was completed by physicians. blood samples were obtained for metabolic measurements. cd4 positive cell count was measured by f lowcytometry. results: levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, ldl, hdl, lactate, and fbs were elevated in 24%, 37%, 3.7%, 44.4%, 29.6% and 11% of patients respectively. there was a significant difference regarding mean total cholesterol and ldl between treated group and controls (p<0.05). therewas also no significant difference between treated group and controls regarding triglyceride, hdl, lactate and fbs levels. conclusion: our study demonstrated that metabolic abnormalities are relatively common in hiv-infected patients receiving haart. therefore, it is recommended to screen the hiv infected patients on haart for metabolic disorders, potential of morbidity, and possible long-term cardiovascular risk factors.