Endocrine Abstracts

Background: We aimed to determine and compare the prevalence and associated factors of metabolic syndrome (MS) among HAART exposed versus HAART naïve HIV infected patients at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano (AKTH).

Method: In this cross-sectional comparative study we evaluated 300 HIV infected persons who were divided into two age and sex matched groups – HAART-exposed and HAART-naïve – attending AKTH. MS was diagnosed using ATP-III criteria. Insulin resistance (IR) among participants with MS was estimated using HOMA-IR.

Results: The mean±S.D. age of HAART-exposed and HAART-naïve subjects was 35.7±10.0 and 34.0±9.7 years respectively (P=0.152). The prevalence of MS among HAART exposed participants was 19.3%, while it was 5.3% among HAART-naïve controls, (P<0.001). Gender wise, 8.7% of males and 10.7% females in the HAART exposed group had MS, while 1.3% of males and 4.0% of females in the HAART naïve group had MS, with no statistical significant difference (P>0.05). Advanced age, longer duration of HIV and HAART exposure, increased BMI, weight gain after HAART exposure, exposure to PIs and increased mean CD4 cell count were found to be significantly associated with MS (P<0.05). However, only age (OR 4.3, 95% CI 1.6–11.8, P=0.005) and BMI (OR 4.2, 95% CI 1.5–11.9, P=0.007) were found to be independently associated with the development of MS. The prevalence of IR among participants with MS that were HAART exposed was 79.3% while that among HAART naïve with MS was 25.0% (P=0.008).

Conclusion: MS is common among HIV patients on HAART mostly related to use of PIs. Advanced age and increased BMI are independent determinants of MS in HAART treated patients. Life style measures and regular monitoring of anthropometric indices of HIV patients will help to reduce the metabolic problems associated with drug treatment.