Over 50's more likely to have elevated lipids and glucose during HIV therapy

AIDSMAP, Michel Carter.
http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/0CC9C076-C428-4925-9744-D3AA67BF586F.asp

Older HIV-positive patients are more likely than HIV-positive individuals under the age of 35 to experience increases in blood sugar, cholesterol and triglycerides after a year of antiretroviral therapy, Italian investigators report in the November edition of HIV Medicine. The study also revealed that older patients have a greater risk than younger patients of developing certain co-morbidities such as heart disease or diabetes after taking HIV treatment. However, the investigators found that anti-HIV therapy had a similar virological and immunological effect in older and younger patients.

With prompt diagnosis and appropriate treatment there is increasing optimism that HIV-positive individuals will survive into old age. The demographics of the HIV-positive population are already changing. In Italy in 1985, for example, the median age for male HIV-infected individuals was 29 and 24 for female patients. By 2004, these ages had increased to a median of 41 and 38 years.
Although older age has been associated with faster HIV disease progression and increased mortality, HIV treatment guidelines do not make any specific recommendations regarding the use of antiretrovirals in older patients.

Therefore, doctors in Milan conducted longitudinal analysis comparing treatment outcomes, the rate of metabolic complications, and the incidence of side-effects and new co-morbidities after the first year of HIV therapy in patients aged over 50 years and those aged between 25 and 35 years.

A total of 159 older patients and 118 controls were included in the investigators’ analysis. The older patients had a mean age of 59 years compared to 30 years in the younger patients.
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Reference
Orlando G et al. Antiretroviral treatment and age-related comorbidities in a cohort of older HIV-infected patients. HIV Med 7: 549 – 557, 2006.