Ocular Manifestations in Patients with HIV Infection/AIDS who were Referred from the ART Centre, Hassan, Karnataka,...

Ocular involvement in HIV infection/AIDS is very common and it includes various clinical presentations which may be asymptomatic or atypical or they may be the initial manifestations of the underlying disease. The severity of these lesions increases as the immune competency decreases, leading to visual impairment or blindness.

The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and the types of HIV associated ocular conditions and their effect on the vision in patients with HIV/AIDS.

This cross sectional study was based on the patients with HIV infection/AIDS, who were referred to the Ophthalmic OPD, District hospital, Hassan. These patients were referred from the District ART Centre for a complete ophthalmic evaluation, irrespective of their immune status and the presence or absence of symptoms. All the patients underwent a complete ophthalmic examination, which included both anterior and posterior segment evaluation and colour vision assessment.

Out of the 553 patients, 66% belonged to the age group of 21-40 years. 87% of the patients had a BCVA of >6/18, whereas 4.7% had very poor vision. 37.6% of the patients had ocular manifestations. Anterior segment, posterior segment and neuro-ophthalmic manifestations were seen in 7%, 9.94% and 5.79% of the patients respectively. The most common anterior segment manifestation was recurrent lid infections, while HIV microangiopathy was the most common posterior segment manifestation. The other unusual findings included an abnormal colour vision in 6.3% of the patients and bilateral lid retraction in 8.5% of the patients.

Since ocular manifestations are very common and as they can occur at any time during the course of HIV infection, an awareness on various patterns of the ocular disease and the screening of all the patients with HIV infection/AIDS is a must.