Long-term use of highly active antiretroviral therapies (HAART) does not appear to be associated with impaired heart function in children and adolescents in a study that sought to determine the cardiac effects of prolonged exposure to HAART on children infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), according to a report published Online First by JAMA Pediatrics, a JAMA Network publication.
In the past when children infected with HIV were given antiretroviral therapies (ARTs), it was found that they were more likely to have heart failure.
Steven E. Lipshultz, M.D., of the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, Florida, and colleagues used statistical models to compare echocardiographic measures in the National Institutes of Health-funded Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study’s Adolescent Master Protocol (AMP). Included in the study were 14 paediatric HIV clinices across the United States and the participants were 325 perinatally HIV-infected children receiving HAART; 189 HIV-exposed but uninfected children; and 70 HIV-infected (mostly HAART-unexposed) historical paediatric controls patients from the National Institutes of Health-funded Pulmonary and Cardiovascular Complications of Vertically Transmitted HIV Infection (P 2 C 2 -HIV) Study.
“Our results indicate that the current use of combination ART, usually HAART, appears to be protect the heart in HIV-infected children and adolescents. This finding is even more relevant in the developing world where the prevalence of HIV disease in children is much higher,” the study notes.
Read the full article in Medical News Today.
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