Rheumatic symptoms and human immunodeficiency virus infection. The influence of clinical and laboratory variables in a longitudinal cohort study

Abstract

The present study was designed to prospectively evaluate the frequency of rheumatic symptoms in a cohort of patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), to examine the relationship between such findings and a variety of clinical and epidemiologic variables, and to evaluate the impact of rheumatic symptoms on the natural history of the HIV infection. One hundred seventeen patients were evaluated over a mean of 24.6 months (range 0.5–85 months). Cumulatively, 1.7% had Reiter's syndrome, 1.7% had psoriatic arthritis, and 11.1% had various forms of oligoarticular/monarticular or polyarticular arthritis. The majority of the rheumatic symptoms developed during the longitudinal evaluation and predominantly affected patients with clinically advanced HIV infection. Patients with articular disease tended to have more progressive HIV infection and were more likely to experience disease progression to clinical acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or death. Our data suggest that the occurrence of rheumatic symptoms in the presence of HIV infection is not uncommon and tends to develop over time, in the setting of clinically advanced retroviral infection. Furthermore, the presence of rheumatic symptoms may be a sign of a poor prognosis for patients with HIV infection.

FIV vaccine development and its importance to veterinary and human medicine: a review

“…Thus, the FIV-induced immunological disease is paradoxical since the hyperimmunoactive state occurs shortly before or concurrently with the severe immunode®ciency syndrome in the infected animals. This presentation of the immune disorders closely resembles the presentation in human AIDS (Calabrese et al, 1991).…”

HIV infection as a risk factor for septic arthritis

“…No previous prospective studies of the incidence and prevalence of septic arthritis in HIV-infected individuals are available, but several studies suggest that this combination is infrequent. In a longitudinal cohort study of 117 HIV-1-seropositive patients followed up over a mean period of 24.6 months, Calabrese et al [7] reported one case of SA. Moreover, Solinger and Hess [8] did not find a single case among 1100 HIV-seropositive out-patients.…”

HIV and Autoimmunity

“…The frequency of rheumatological syndromes in HIV patients varies from less than 1% to 60% [2,[5][6][7]. The list of reported autoimmune diseases in HIV/AIDS is found in Table 2.…”