Lipodystrophy and serum lipid abnormalities in HIV-positive sub-Saharan population on ART

To evaluate whether racial factors may be involved in the development of ART-induced lipodystrophy and/or lipid serum abnormalities, we carried-out a case-control study on all 23 consecutive anti-HIV-positive sub-Saharan black African patients observed from September 20fc01 to December 2001 ('Cases') and 23 Caucasian 'Controls' pair-matched for sex, age (+/-5 years), number of CD4 cells (+/-100 cells), clinical stage of HIV infection, overall duration (+/-3 months) of anti-retroviral treatment and type and duration (+/-3 months) of the last anti-retroviral regimen. The cases, as compared with the controls, less frequently showed lipodystrophy (4.4 vs. 65.2%, P<0.001) and hypertriglyceridemia (8.8 vs. 56.5%, P<0.005), whereas the prevalence of subjects with hypercholesterolemia was similar in the two groups (30 and 39.1%, respectively). Overall, the prevalence of patients lacking both lipodystrophy and serum lipid abnormalities was markedly higher for the cases than for the controls (69.5 vs. 13%, P<0.001). This study seems to indicate that anti-retroviral-induced lipodystrophy and hypertriglyceridemia may be associated to some racial factor.