Assessment of Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction among Human Immunodeficiency Virus infected Children in Ilorin North-Central Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a multi-systemic infection affecting the cardiovascular system with the left ventricle particularly at a higher risk. Most children with this infectious disease acquired it early in their lives through vertical transmission, thus they live to contend with its attendant complications from chronicity.  Echocardiography is one of the gold standards for the assessment of cardiac function of these children.   This study determined the prevalence of left ventricular systolic dysfunction among HIV-infected children.

Methods: A comparative cross-sectional study among 100 HIV-infected subjects and an equal number of HIV-negative controls aged 2–14 years were recruited consecutively through the Paediatric HIV and out-patient clinics respectively. Recruitments and echocardiography for both groups lasted 4months. Data was analysed with SPSS^® v 20. Results were presented in tables as frequencies and percentages. Mean and standard deviation of normally distributed data were determined. Categorical variables were compared using chi-square test. Significant p is < 0.05.

 Results: The mean age of participants was 9.42 ± 2.99 years.  There were more males with M: F of 1.4:1. Two-thirds were of the lower social class and at the asymptomatic phase while almost all were on HAART. The prevalence of left ventricular systolic dysfunction among subjects was 36% compared with 18% among controls (p = 0.004).

 Conclusions: HIV-infected children are twice predisposed to developing left ventricular systolic dysfunction compared with the HIV-negative children. Most of the HIV-infected children in this study were males, at the asymptomatic phase, on HAART and belonged to the lower socio-economic status.