title: Endocrine alterations in HIV-infected patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the frequency of thyroid, adrenal and gonadal dysfunction in newly diagnosed HIV-infected patients and to correlate them at different levels of CD4 cell counts.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-three HIV-positive cases were included in the study group. Cases were divided into three groups on the basis of CD4 cell count. Serum free T3, free T4, TSH, Cortisol, FSH, LH, testosterone and estradiol were estimated by the radioimmunoassay method. Hormone levels between cases were compared and their correlation with CD4 count was analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Prevalence of gonadal dysfunction (88.3%) was the most common endocrine dysfunction followed by thyroid (60.4%) and adrenal dysfunction (27.9%). Secondary hypogonadism (68.4%) was more common than primary (31.6%). Low T3 syndrome, that is, isolated low free T3, was the most common (25.6%) thyroid dysfunction followed by secondary hypothyroidism (16.2%) and subclinical hypothyroidism (11.6%). Adrenal excess (16.3%) was more common than adrenal insufficiency (11.6%). The difference in hormonal dysfunction between male and female was statistically insignificant (P > 0.05). 27.9% of patients had multiple hormone deficiency. There was negligible or no correlation between CD4 count and serum hormone level.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In our study, endocrine dysfunction was quite common among HIV-infected patients but there was no correlation between hormone levels and CD4 count. Endocrine dysfunctions and role of hormone replacement therapy in HIV-infected patient needs to be substantiated by large longitudinal study, so that it will help to reduce morbidity, improve quality of life.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Medicine, Utkal University, Cuttack, Odisha, India.
authors.forename: Sujit Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Tripathy
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology, Utkal University, Cuttack, Odisha, India.
authors.forename: Ritesh Kumar
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Agrawala
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology, Utkal University, Cuttack, Odisha, India.
authors.forename: Anoj Kumar
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Baliarsinha
keywords: Adrenal; endocrinopathy; gonad; human immunodeficiency virus; radioimmunoassay; thyroid