Left ventricular dysfunction in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients

We evaluated left ventricular function by echocardiography in a prospective study that included 98 consecutive human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients and 40 HIV-seronegative normal controls. When compared with controls, HIV patients showed increased isovolumic relaxation time (101±18 ms versus 71±10 ms; p<0.0001) and left ventricular diastolic diameters (51±6 mm versus 47±3 mm; p<0.0005), and decreased fractional shortening (31±6% versus 37±2%; p<0.0001). Diastolic dysfunction was the most frequent finding (63% of the patients). We found depressed ejection fraction in 31 (32%) patients. Only 8 (8%) patients had symptomatic congestive heart failure. Left ventricular dysfunction was not attributable to intravenous drug abuse or to therapy. It was less severe in earlier stages of the infection (fractional shortening: acquired immunodeficiency syndrome=30%±6%, asymptomatic HIV-seropositives 34%±5%; p<0.005) and in HIV-2-infected patients. Patients with opportunistic infections (all aetiologies mixed) had more frequent congestive heart failure than those without infections (16% of the patients with versus 4% of the patients without infections; p<0.05). The fact that even asymptomatic HIV-seropositives had signs of left ventricular dysfunction (fractional shortening: asymptomatic HIV-seropositives=34%±5%; controls=37%±2%; p<0.05) favours the hypothesis of the HIV being one of the causes of these abnormalities.