Higher Rates of Eye Complications in HIV-Positive People on ART

A prospective South African study in 342 people looked at rates of optical complications and associations with HIV status and time on ART.

This group included: HIV-negative (n=105), HIV positive not on ART (n=16), HIV positive on ART for <12 months (short-term) (n=56) and HIV positive on ART for >36 months (long-term; n=165). All participants received full ophthalmic examination including fundoscopy.

Ocular disease was diagnosed in 218/342 people (64%). with HIV associated with a 3-fold higher rate or any ocular condition on (OR=3.1; 1.7-7.7; p< 0.001) and 2-fold risk of having more eye complaints (OR=1.9; 95% CI: 1.1-3.2, p=0.020), compared to HIV-negative participants.

Conditions affecting the external eye, anterior chamber or posterior chamber, but not the neuro-ophthalmic segment, were significantly more common among HIV-positive individuals (Table 1).

Within the HIV-positive group, after adjusting for age, longer ART use was associated with higher rates of clinical cataract (57% vs. 38%; aOR 2.2, p=0.01) and HIV retinopathy (30% vs. 11%; age-aOR 3.4, p<0.05).

Reference

Peters R et al. Ocular conditions are more common among HIV-infected individuals using ART for an extended period of time. AIDS 2016, Durban. Poster abstract WEPE108
http://programme.aids2016.org/Abstract/Abstract/2476 (Abstract)
http://programme.aids2016.org/PAGMaterial/eposters/0_2476.pdf (PDF poster)