Cardioembolic stroke in an HIV endemic region: underdiagnosed and severe

Cardioembolic stroke (CES) appears to be a rare cause of stroke (4%-9%) in people living with HIV (PLWH) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, due to limited access to diagnostic resources, this may be an underestimate. It is also unclear which cardiac pathologies are the major contributors to CES in this region. We sought to determine the prevalence and aetiology of CES in PLWH and to determine whether there are any differences compared with HIV negative stroke patients.

This cross-sectional study recruited PLWH with new-onset stroke at a quaternary-level hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 2014 to 2017, and compared them to age-matched and sex-matched HIV negative stroke patients. Comprehensive investigations were performed to determine the underlying stroke aetiology, including electrocardiography, echocardiography, CT angiography and cerebrospinal fluid examination.

85 PLWH with ischaemic stroke were recruited and compared with 109 HIV negative controls. CES was identified in 17/85 (20.0%) of PLWH. These patients had more severe strokes than PLWH with non-CES (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score 14.9±6.7 vs 11.7±5.4, p=0.04). Cardiomyopathy was the predominant cardiac pathology in PLWH (76.4% vs 45.5% in HIV negative, p=0.04) while valvulopathy was more common in HIV negative patients (42.4% vs 11.8% in PLWH, p=0.03). Arrhythmia (n=1) and ischaemic heart disease (n=1) were uncommon in PLWH.

CES is underdiagnosed in SSA and is more severe than non-CES. The identification of cardiomyopathy as the predominant underlying cardiac pathology may assist to target resources towards its detection using accessible cost-effective biomarkers.