Pathogenesis and treatment of human immunodeficiency virus lipodystrophy.
Jain. Suyog Subhash SS; Ramteke. Karuna Balwant KB; Raparti. Girish Tulsidas GT; Kalra. Sanjay S
Key Findings
- Antiretroviral therapy can trigger HIV‑associated lipodystrophy, leading to harmful metabolic changes.
- Treatment strategies include switching to safer drugs, lipid‑lowering agents, antidiabetic drugs, and growth‑hormone analogs like tesamorelin.
- Understanding and applying these therapies is crucial for preventing cardiovascular complications.
Practical Outcomes
- If you’re on HIV meds, regularly check your body‑fat distribution, blood lipids, and glucose. For excess visceral fat, tesamorelin may be an option, but it requires a prescription and medical monitoring. Adjusting your drug regimen and adding standard lipid or diabetes treatments can also mitigate risks.
Summary
Long‑term HIV drugs can cause a mix of fat‑distribution problems and metabolic issues that raise heart‑attack and stroke risk. Doctors treat this by swapping to less harmful meds, using cholesterol‑lowering drugs, diabetes meds, and sometimes growth‑hormone‑like drugs such as tesamorelin, plus surgery if needed. Keeping up with these options helps spot and manage the side‑effects early.
Abstract
Enhanced understanding about the way human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infects and causes infection in humans has led to invention and use of newer more effective antiretroviral drugs. As treatment for HIV is long term, side effects of the antiretrovirals become an important area of research focus. Antiretrovirals can cause severe metabolic abnormalities, collectively known as HIV lipodystrophy syndrome. If untreated, these metabolic abnormalities have the potential to increase stroke and cardiac ischemia. Management includes choice of nonoffending drugs, switch over to less toxic drugs, hypolipidemics, oral antidiabetics including thiazolidinediones, metformin and growth hormone analogs and finally facial surgeries. Updated knowledge about HIV lipodystrophy, and the hormone-related drugs used to treat it, is essential for physicians and endocrinologists to be able to diagnose the patients and effectively treat them.
Study Information
pubmed
2012
2012-03-01T00:00:00.000Z
10.4103/2230-8210.94250
9
27