Association between Duration of Protease Inhibitor Therapy and BMI in HIV Patients

Introduction: The prognosis of HIV had changed dramatically from a deadly infectious disease into a manageable infection. Initiation of ARV, especially protease inhibitor, was thought to be associated with metabolic abnormalities. Weight gain in HIV could be a positive indicator for better prognosis. However, excessive weight gain was associated with deleterious effects. Studies regarding protease inhibitor in weight gain had different results. In this study, we intend to identify association of PI therapy duration with BMI. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study in Adam Malik Hospital, Medan from August to December 2019. We recruited HIV patients above 18 years old during the outpatient with at least 6-month duration of PI therapy. During visits, patients were screened for inclusion criteria and assessed for BMI. Fasting blood glucose and insulin plasma sample were taken in the morning. Data was analysed by SPSS 22.0. Results: Thirty-five subjects fulfilled inclusion criteria, 25 of subjects were males (71.4%). Mean age of subjects was 38.85 ± 9.7 years. Data analysis presented that there were no significant differences between two groups of treatment (24.33 ± 3.3 kg/m2 vs 24.39 ± 5.0 kg/m2; p = 0.966). There were significant differences between two groups regarding fasting blood glucose level (84.4 ± 6.8 mg/dL vs 114.9 ± 53.6 mg/dL; p = 0.015) and fasting insulin level (7.28 ± 3.4 µU/mL vs 26.01 ± 23.5 µU/mL; p = 0.000). Conclusion: BMI was not associated with duration of PI therapy in our study. Fasting blood glucose and fasting insulin were significantly higher between groups. Keywords: HIV, protease inhibitor, BMI, insulin, obesity, weight gain.