Abstract
BackgroundIn Zambia, 14.2% of adults have HIV/AIDS. There has been a substantial and significant increase in patients hospitalized for ischaemic stroke with co-existing HIV infection. However, little is known about the mechanism of stroke in these HIV + ve patients let alone studied in our region. The aim of this pilot study was to explore the association of hypercoagulability state in HIV + ve patients with ischaemic stroke. This was achieved by comparing hypercoagulability state markers between HIV + ve ischaemic stroke patients with HIV-ve and HIV + ve patients with and without ischaemic stroke respectively.MethodsA matched case control study in which a total of 52 HIV + ve patients with ischaemic stroke were prospectively compared with control groups for the presence of protein S, protein C deficiencies and hyperhomocysteinaemia. The control groups comprised an equal number of consecutively matched for age and sex HIV-ve and HIV + ve patients with and without ischaemic stroke respectively. Data was analysed in contingency tables using Paired t- test, Chi square and conditional logistic regression.ResultsIschaemic stroke of undetermined aetiology occurred more frequently in HIV + ve compared to HIV-ve patients (p < 0.001). In addition, protein S deficiency and Hyperhomocysteinaemia were more prominent in HIV + ve than HIV-ve ischaemic stroke patients (P = 0.011). There was no difference in the presence of hyperhomocysteinaemia or protein S deficiency in HIV + ve patients with or without ischaemic stroke. Protein C deficiency was not noted to be significantly different between the cases and the two control arms.ConclusionProtein S deficiency and hyperhomocysteinaemia were associated with HIV infection, but not stroke in our study population. However, this is an area that requires extensive research and one that we cannot afford to ignore as it is an important bridge to all cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
Highlights
In Zambia, 14.2% of adults have Human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS
These patients were frequency matched for age and sex with 52 HIV negative (HIV-ve) ischaemic stroke patients and 52 HIV + ve no stroke patients as controls respectively. (Fig. 1)
Despite attempts to match by age range (+/− 5 years), there was a statistical difference between the two groups and as expected the HIV-ve
Summary
Little is known about the mechanism of stroke in these HIV + ve patients let alone studied in our region. There has been a substantial and significant increase in patients hospitalized for ischaemic stroke with co-existing HIV infection [2,3,4,5,6]. This is rapidly becoming a serious problem and is significantly adding to the rising burden of non-communicable diseases [7,8,9].
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