Low bone mineral density in HIV-positive young Italians and migrants

Abstract

Background Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected individuals may have osteoporosis. We aimed to evaluate the bone mineral density (BMD) in naïve antiretroviral (ARV) treated HIV positive patients comparing native Italian group (ItG) to a Migrants group (MiG) upon arrival in Italy. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study on 83 HIV patients less than 50 years old. We used the dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) within six months from the HIV diagnosis. Participants were categorized as having low BMD if the femoral neck or total lumbar spine Zscore was-2 or less. Results MiG showed low BMD more often than ItG (37.5% vs.13.6%), especially for the female gender (16.7% vs. 0.0%). A low CD4 rate (<200 cells/μl) was most often detected in MiG than ItG. In particular, we found most often male Italians with abnormal CD4 than male migrants (67.8% vs. 33.3%) and vice versa for females (30.5% vs. 66.7%). We found an abnormal bone mineral density at the lumbar site. Low BMD at the lumbar site was more frequently observed in female migrants than female Italians. Both male and female migrants had a Zscore value significantly lower than male and female Italians, respectively. By logistic regression low vitamin-D level was positively correlated to low BMD in ItG only. All data were verified and validated using a triple code identifier.

The evaluation of risk factors related to reduced bone mineral density in young people living with HIV

“…Brown et al 19 found the rate of decreased BMD in an ART-naive group of patients younger than 50 years old as 10%, while Paccou et al 20 found the same rate as 24.5% in a similar group. Cascio et al 21 compared Italian patients younger than 50 years old and lived with HIV and migrant patients based on their Z-scores and found their rates of low BMD as 13.6% and 37.5%, respectively. These researchers reported that the lumbar region was affected the most, a result similar to what was found in this study.…”

Vitamin D and Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia: A Topic to Be Further Explored

“…In addition, vitamin D may have a crucial role in bone osteoporosis, which may be essential in migrants and individuals with HIV infection [39][40][41][42][43]. Child neglect cases discovered in forensic practice and unpublished cases debated only in courts may represent the tip of an iceberg [29,44].…”

The Role of Zinc in the T-Cell Metabolism in Infection Requires Further Investigation - An Opinion

“…Thymus depletion is a usual finding in human-immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected patients, but a refurbishment of the thymus function in children has been proposed in some virologic responders treated with multidrug combinations of antiretroviral agents ( 1 – 3 ). In addition, studies from children with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) have clarified the pathogenesis of some primary tissue lesions ( 2 , 4 , 5 ).…”