The Study Of Echocardiography In AIDS Patients With Cardiac Complications

Backgroud Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) was caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and it is a serious chronic contagious disease and could not be cured. The heart also could be involved in, and the cardiovascular complications are multiple. There are some reports about HIV-related cardiac diseases and left ventricular dysfunction, but the study on right heart function was seldom. In the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), there are inconsistent conclusions about the effect of HAART to heart in AIDS patients. Objectives There are four purposes of this study. First, to investigate the echocardiographic characteristics of HIV related cardiac diseases and detect the clinical value of echocardiography. Second, to study the morphologic and functional changes of right heart in AIDS by 2-dimensional echocardiogaphy and tissue Doppler imaging (TDI). Third, to compare the right heart function of AIDS patients treated with HAART and without HAART in order to confirm whether there is any effects of HAART to right heart function in AIDS patients. Fourth, to get more experiences of diagnosising subclinical abnormal heart function and guide clinical diagnosis and therapy. Patients and Methods 131 HIV positive /AIDS patients were studied, amone them.