Kearney DL; Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.

Program Abstr 3rd Conf Retrovir Oppor Infect Conf Retrovir Oppor Infect 3rd 1996 Wash D C. 1996 Jan 28-Feb 1; 3rd: 133.

NHLBI. Bethesda, MD.

Studies demonstrating postmortem cardiac pathology in HIV-infected children have been based on limited numbers of patients, often without prior clinical measurements of cardiac structure and function, thereby precluding correlation of pre- and postmortem cardiac observations. Postmortem heart weight (HW) standardized to body length was recorded in 27 HIV-infected children (median age 18 mo, range 1-137 mo) who were enrolled in a multicenter, prospective natural history study. Since the body length for these patients was significantly decreased for age (median z-score -3.31, range -6.99 to 0.30), reflecting malnutrition with poor somatic growth, normalization of HW to body length is essential. Twelve children (44%) had HW greater than 2 s.d. above normal, suggesting significant cardiomegaly (median HW z-score 1.80; range -1.17 to 30.10). In 21/27 children, echo measurements of left ventricular mass (LVM) and wall thickness (WT), both standardized to body surface area, were performed from 9 d to 8 mo prior to death (median 2.5 mo). HW z-score correlated significantly with increased LVM (r= 0.71, p less than 0.001, n=20, median z-score 0.80) and WT (r= 0.51, P.=0.02, n=2l, median z-score 1.09). We conclude that, despite significant malnutrition, cardiomegaly is a frequent postmortem finding in HIV infected children, and correlates with premortem echo determinants of left ventricular size.

Publication Types:

• Meeting Abstracts

Keywords:

• Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
• Autopsy
• Cardiomegaly
• Child
• Growth
• HIV Infections
• HIV Seropositivity
• Heart
• Humans
• Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular
• Malnutrition
• Nutritional Status
• Prospective Studies

Other ID:

• 96920431

UI: 102216482

From Meeting Abstracts