title: Prevalence of cardiac abnormalities in human immunodeficiency virus infection.
abstract: The prevalence of cardiac abnormalities in the spectrum of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is unknown. Sixty consecutive HIV-infected patients were studied using echocardiograms, electrocardiograms (50 patients) and ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring (43 patients). Group A (25 patients) were seropositive but pre-AIDS, whereas group B (35 patients) had AIDS and included 24 with an active opportunistic infection (group B1) and 11 without it (group B2). Abnormalities were identified in 32 of 60 patients (53%) and were more frequent in group B (23 of 35, 66%) than in group A (9 of 25, 36%, p less than 0.05) but independent of active opportunistic infection (15 of 24, 62%, in group B1 vs 8 of 11, 73%, in group B2). Echocardiographic abnormalities were identified in 21 of 60 patients (35%), including 7 of 25 (28%) in group A vs 14 of 35 (40%) in group B (difference not significant), and 7 of 24 (29%) in group B1 vs 7 of 11 (64%) in group B2 (difference not significant). Those patients with an absolute CD4 lymphocyte count less than or equal to 100/mm3 had a higher prevalence of echocardiographic abnormalities (12 of 22) than those with CD4 counts greater than 100/mm3 (1 of 14, p less than 0.01). Left ventricular dilation or hypokinesis was identified in 14 of 60 patients (23%), including 4 of 25 (16%) in group A and 10 of 35 (29%) in group B. Electrocardiographic abnormalities were seen in 22 of 50 patients (44%) including 5 of 18 (28%) in group A and 17 of 32 (53%) in group B (difference not significant).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20037.
authors.forename: W S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Levy
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Rios
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Ross
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000150:complications*; D000328:Adult; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes; D004452:Echocardiography; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D009894:Opportunistic Infections / Q000150:complications