Objective: To describe the syndrome of lipodystrophy, hyperlipidemia, insulin resistance, and diabetes in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection treated with protease inhibitor drugs.
Methods: This is a case series of patients referred from an infectious disease clinic to a diabetes-endocrinology clinic in an academic medical center because of severe metabolic problems that occurred during the course of otherwise-successful treatment of HIV infection. The clinical course, abnormalities on physical examination, laboratory data, and complications are described and analyzed. The pathogenesis of the syndrome is discussed and compared with that of type 2 diabetes, lipoatrophic diabetes, and mouse models of lipodystrophy.
Results: In six male patients receiving antiretroviral therapy for HIV infection, a syndrome of lipoatrophy of the face, legs, and buttocks, hyperlipidemia (predominantly hypertriglyceridemia), and type 2 diabetes mellitus was noted. Two patients had pronounced abdominal obesity, in contrast to their thin extremities. Five of the six patients were receiving protease inhibitor drugs, which have been thought to contribute to metabolic abnormalities. In two patients, ischemic heart disease had developed.
Conclusion: Protease inhibitors frequently cause insulin resistance and lipoatrophy in subcutaneous adipose tissue. These abnormalities are associated with visceral adiposity, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and cardiovascular consequences and represent an important and unsolved problem in the treatment of HIV-infected patients.