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Published on: September 26, 2011
Von Willebrand Factor Multimer Patterns in People Living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection
Background:
Endothelial dysfunction contributes to hypercoagulability in people with HIV (PWH). A surrogate marker of this is elevated von Willebrand factor (VWF) which has been documented in PWH. This study compared VWF multimer patterns in PWH who were anti-retroviral therapy (ART) naive and immune reconstituted on ART.
Methods:
VWF multimer analysis was performed with a semi-quantitative electrophoresis assay on plasma from 79 PWH (39 ART-naive and 40 virally suppressed on ART) and 25 normal control samples.
Results:
The total optical density mean VWF level was significantly increased in PWH and higher in ART-naive versus ART-exposed, virally suppressed patients (p < 0.0001). No quantitative difference was demonstrated in the multimer distribution pattern between the groups.
Conclusions:
Our findings suggest that there is no difference in multimer distribution between ART-naive and virally suppressed PWH. Due to a small sample size, confirmation in a larger study is required.
