Background
Idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare disease. HIV‐infected patients exhibit a considerably higher rate of development of this condition compared to the general population.
Methods
This cross‐sectional study of 802 (83.4% male; age 44.3±10.3 years) HIV‐positive patients aimed to evaluate the male‐to‐female ratio in HIV‐related PAH and to elucidate whether PAH is more likely to occur in patients receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) than in HIV‐treatment‐naïve patients. All patients were examined by Doppler echocardiography to estimate systolic pulmonary arterial pressure (sPAP). Manifest PAH was defined as sPAP >35 mmHg at rest in combination with symptoms of dyspnoea.
Results
A total of 38 (4.7%) patients were diagnosed with elevated sPAP >35 mmHg. Fourteen (1.7%; 11 male) of these patients presented with symptoms of dyspnoea, resulting in a male‐to‐female ratio of manifest HIV‐associated PAH of 1:1.4. Patients with symptoms of dyspnoea and sPAP>35 mmHg were more likely to receive HAART (13/14 patients).
Conclusions
In HIV patients, sPAP occurs more frequently than has been reported previously; the condition is possibly associated with HAART. Furthermore, HIV‐positive females exhibit a higher prevalence of HIV‐related PAH (HIV–PAH) than HIV‐positive males.
Our study demonstrated that in an HIV-infected population, QTc prolongation had a high prevalence of nearly 20% compared to the general population and was possibly influenced by common factors like gender, diabetes, and arterial hypertension.
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