HIV patients are at risk for osteoporosis increased almost four

Patients infected with HIV seem almost four times more likely than HIV-negative people have osteoporosis, according to the results of a synthesis published in the journal "Aids"
The decrease in bone mineral density (BMD) figure, as well as the deterioration of the microarchitecture of bone tissue, among the factors contributing to the situation of bone fragility characteristic of ostéporose, which is accompanied by an increase fracture risk.

A decrease in BMD in HIV + patients, already suggested by several studies, may partly result from the action of HIV itself, but the treatments, including protease inhibitors, may also be involved. Overall, the available results remain contradictory.

Todd Brown of Johns Hopkins in Baltimore (Maryland), and university colleagues have reviewed the results of twenty published studies confirming the risk of bone loss in people with HIV.

According to them, 67% of 884 HIV followed in these studies showed a decrease in BMD, a 6.4-fold increased risk compared to the weight of the negative 654 constituting the control group. In addition, osteoporosis was diagnosed in 15% of HIV + participants, which equates to a 3.7-fold risk compared to negative.

Antiretroviral therapy appear to be directly involved in the occurrence of osteoporosis, patients appear 2.4 times more likely to be achieved treatment-naïve patients. In addition, the results appear to be directly challenging the protease inhibitors, linked to a 60% increase risk of osteoporosis.

Other molecules that protease inhibitors have been implicated in previous studies, say the authors, who call to conduct further studies on the subject.