Anti-Retroviral Therapy Increases the Prevalence of Dyslipidemia in South African HIV-Infected Patients

Purpose Data on the prevalence of dyslipidaemia and associated risk factors in HIV-infected patients from sub-Saharan Africa is sparse. We performed a cross-sectional analysis in a cohort of HIV-infected South African adults. Methods We studied HIV-infected patients who were either antiretroviral therapy (ART)-naive or receiving non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI)-based or protease inhibitor (PI)-based ART. Evaluation included fasting lipograms, oral glucose tolerance tests and clinical anthropometry. Dyslipidemia was defined using the NCEP ATPIII guidelines. Results The median age of the participants was 34 years (range 19-68 years) and 78% were women. The prevalence of dyslipidemia in 406 ART-naive and 551 participants on ART was 90.0% and 85%, respectively. Low HDL-cholesterol (HDLC) was the most common abnormality [290/406 (71%) ART-naive and 237/551 (43%) ART-participants]. Participants on ART had higher triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), LDL-cholesterol (LDLC) and HDLC than the ART-naive group. Severe dyslipidaemia, (LDLC > 4.9 mmol/L or TG > 5.0 mmol/L) was present in <5% of participants. In multivariate analyses there were complex associations between age, gender, type and duration of ART and body composition and LDLC, HDLC and TG, which differed between ART-naive and ART-participants. Conclusion Participants on ART had higher TG, TC, LDLC and HDLC than those who were ART-naive but severe lipid abnormalities requiring evaluation and treatment were uncommon.