H. Vijay Kumar1, NVA Benhur2
Stroke and HIV infection are both common medical problems in day-to-day clinical practice. According to the few studies done1 in India, the prevalence of stroke in general population in India is 205 cases/1 lakh population, common in elderly people and of them 25% are seen in the young individuals. HIV infection is an emerging aetiology for stroke in the young.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This is a prospective, observational, hospital-based study involving 100 inpatients’ who were admitted in medical and neurology wards with acute stroke with HIV infection to Government General Hospital, Kakinada, from October 2012 to September 2014. Before the commencement of the study, permission was obtained from Institutional Review Board, Ethics Committee, Rangaraya Medical College and GGH. All enrolled patients were informed about the nature of the study and their rights to refuse. Their informed written consent was taken before including them in the study.
RESULTS
In studies done by M. Mlay et al2, Felicia C. Chow et al,3 percentage of diabetes was 22.1% and 11.1%, respectively. Brown et al and Ovbiagle et al4 showed that the use of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) has been associated with several metabolic complications, which is a risk factor for cerebrovascular events. Myocardial infraction is the most frequent vascular event in HAART usage by causing hyperlipidaemias and premature atherosclerosis, Amelia Nogueria Pinto et al.5 There were a total of 30 deaths altogether in the study (30% mortality) with 3 cases out of the 12% haemorrhagic strokes (27.27% mortality) and 27 deaths out of the 82% cases of ischaemic stroke (33.33% mortality). There is no statistically significant difference in the mortality rates between ischaemic and haemorrhagic strokes with a p value of 1.0.
CONCLUSION
HIV infection puts the patients at risk for cerebrovascular events is now an established association. Stroke is being reported more often as first presentation of HIV infection. Thus, it is worthwhile to screen for the HIV in routine workup for stroke in young and after confirmation of HIV infection workup should further proceed to establishing an aetiopathogenesis for stroke in HIV.
KEYWORDS
Stroke, HIV
