Prevalence and Risk Factors of Prolonged QTc Interval in HIV-Infected Patients: Results of the HIV-HEART Study

Abstract

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.

Viral Load and CD4+ Cell Count as Risk Factors for Prolonged QT Interval in HIV-Infected Subjects: A Cohort-Nested Case-Control Study in an Outpatient Population

“…Sani et al [2] found that the prevalence of prolonged QTc interval is about 49% in AIDS patients while Kocheril et al [11] reported QTc interval prolongation in about 28% of 42 hospitalized HIV-infected patients. In the recently published HIV-HEART study by Reinsch et al [19], the prevalence was also similar to ours (20%).…”

Association of electrocardiogram abnormalities in human immunodeficiency virus infected patients with special reference to QTc interval

“…15 Reinsch et al in the HIV HEART study demonstrated that nearly 20% prevalence of QTc prolongation in an HIV-infected population which is higher than our study and this could have been influenced by factors like gender, diabetes, and arterial hypertension. 16 The majority of our patients were accustomed to the daily physical activity like heavy labour work, truck drivers etc, which mitigated the inherent risk of arrhythmias and QTc prolongation, in contrast to the higher incidence of ECG repolarization heterogeneity noted with the sedentary habits 15 The electrophysiological mechanisms underlying drug induced QTc prolongation in relation to protease inhibitors and its clinical implications has been well described by Singh et al 9 All the patients with QTc prolongation in our study were on ART, a finding similar to the one by Patel et al which has reported QTc prolongation in 27.5% patients who were taking ART in their study of 454 HIV patients. 8 Reinsch et al 16 showed that the QTc was pronged in patients with lower CD4 count as compared to patients with higher CD 4 count and this is similar to our finding as most of our patients with QTc prolongation had lower CD 4 count (<200).…”

Multi-Factorial Causes of Torsade de Pointes in a Hospitalised Surgical Patient = الأسباب المتعددة لإلتواء تخطيط القلب حول النقطة في مريض جراحي داخل المستشف

“…9 In the recent HIV-infection and heart disease (HIV-HEART) study, the prevalence was 20%. 10 Yang et al have demonstrated that the IKrblocking properties of certain drugs is directly dependent on extracellular potassium. 11 They showed anincreasing drug block of the potassium current precipitated by hypokalaemia.…”