SummaryBackground and objectives HIV-associated nephropathy (HIVAN) is well described, but the clinical features of a group of renal pathologies characterized by Ig or immune complex depositions referred to as HIV-associated immune complex kidney disease (HIVICK) have not been well established. The objective of this study is to assess risk factors for HIVICK compared with contemporaneous control participants.Design, setting, participants, & measurements A nested case-control study of 751 HIV-infected patients followed from January 1996 to June 2010 was conducted. Groups were compared using the chi-squared test or ranksum analysis. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) for HIVICK. Incidences of overall ESRD and with/without combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) exposure were calculated.Results HIVICK patients were predominantly African American (92%). Compared with matched controls, patients with HIVICK were more likely to have HIV RNA .400 copies/ml (OR, 2.5; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.2 to 5.2), diabetes (OR, 2.8; 95% CI, 1.1 to 6.8), and hypertension (OR, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.2 to 4.5). Compared with HIVAN, patients with HIVICK had more antiretroviral therapy exposure, lower HIV viral loads, and higher CD4 and estimated GFR. ESRD was less common in the HIVICK versus the HIVAN group (30% versus 82%; P,0.001), and the use of cART was not associated with ESRD in HIVICK patients (25% versus 26; P=0.39).Conclusions HIVICK was predominantly observed in African-American patients and associated with advanced HIV disease. ESRD incidence is lower in HIVICK patients compared with those with HIVAN. Unlike HIVAN, cART use was not associated with the incidence of ESRD in HIVICK.

Recently, an association was found between non-diabetic kidney disease in African Americans and two independent sequence variants in the APOL1 gene, encoding apolipoprotein L1. In this study we determined the frequency of APOL1 risk variants in patients with biopsy-proven HIV-associated nephropathy (HIVAN) and distinctive pathological characteristics potentially driven by those risk variants. Among 76 patients with HIVAN, 60 were successfully genotyped for APOL1 G1 and G2 polymorphisms. In this cohort, 37 had two risk alleles, 18 were heterozygous and 5 had neither risk variant. There were no differences in the pathological findings of HIVAN and the number of APOL1 risk alleles. Further, the progression to end stage kidney disease or death did not differ by the number of risk alleles. Median renal survival was 9.3 months in patients with none or one risk allele compared to 11.7 months in patients with two APOL1 risk alleles. Thus, our study suggests that although the majority of African American patients with HIVAN have two APOL1 risk alleles, other as yet unknown factors in the host including genetic risk variants and environmental or viral factors may influence the development of this disorder in those with none or one APOL1 risk allele.

Due to the improved longevity afforded by combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), HIV-infected individuals are developing several non-AIDS related comorbid conditions. Consequently, medical management of the HIV-infected population is increasingly complex, with a growing list of potential drug-drug interactions (DDIs). This article reviews some of the most relevant and emerging potential interactions between antiretroviral medications and other agents. The most common DDIs are those involving protease inhibitors or non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors which alter the cytochrome P450 enzyme system and/or drug transporters such as p-glycoprotein. Of note are the new agents for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus infection. These new classes of drugs and others drugs which are increasingly used in this patient population represent a significant challenge with regard to achieving the goals of effective HIV suppression and minimization of drug-related toxicities. Awareness of DDIs and a multidisciplinary approach are imperative in reaching these goals.

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Screening with hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) is highly recommended for at-risk individuals. Mutations in the HBsAg can result in an inability to detect the virus during routine screening. We describe a hemodialysis patient found to have high levels of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA and HBV antibody but negative HBsAg on two routine assays.