December 1, 2008

Latinos Most Likely, Blacks Least Likely to Have Lipodystrophy

HIV-positive Latino patients were the most likely and HIV-positive black patients were the least likely to have lipodystrophy—undesirable changes in body fat, cholesterol and blood sugar—after starting antiretroviral (ARV) therapy, according to a study published online November 22 in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

Racial and ethnic differences in body fat composition, cholesterol and blood sugar have been well documented in HIV-negative patients, with both black and Latino patients commonly suffering from higher rates of diabetes and unhealthy cholesterol levels than white patients. Less is known, however, about the impact of race and ethnicity on such metabolic problems and changes in body fat composition in HIV-positive patients.

To explore the potential differences, Cynthia Gibert, MD, MSc, from George Washington University in Washington, DC, and her colleagues conducted repeated body measurements and blood analysis on 398 HIV-positive patients starting ARV therapy for the first time. Forty-three of the patients were Latino, 243 were black and 112 were white.

Though overall rates of diabetes and decreased sensitivity to insulin were not high, Dr. Gibert’s team found that Latinos were nearly twice as likely as either black or white patients to develop these conditions. Both white and Latino patients were more likely than black patients to have increases in LDL cholesterol—the “bad” cholesterol—than black patients.

Gilbert’s group also reported that Latinos were the most likely, and blacks the least likely, to have accumulation of fat deep in the gut area and loss of fat in the limbs.

Though the authors concede that the number of Latinos in their study was low, their methods of analysis were stringent enough that the differences seen in the study were statistically significant, meaning that they were too great to have occurred by chance. Gibert’s team also notes that because the study enrolled patients several years ago, there was much higher use of drugs such as Zerit (stavudine) and Retrovir (zidovudine), two drugs especially linked to loss of limb fat, than is common today.

Search: lipodystrophy, diabetes, blood sugar, cholesterol, fat, race, ethnicity, Cynthia Gibert, George Washingtin University

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Previous Comments:

Indioheathen, , 2008-12-04 12:13:12
"Latino" (like "hispanic") is a generic multi-ethnic term for identifying persons of Latin American origin regardless of race, which includes "black" and tri-racial "creole" (African/ Amerindian/European) people with ancestry from Latin America. The majority of "Latinos" have varying but significant amounts of Amerindian genes that have a high predisposition for such conditions as diabetes, high cholesterol, and obesity as a result of the non-nutritious elements of the "western" diet.

Julie, , 2008-12-01 21:45:12
if the data is old, why to publish it as something new or that could be used as reference for anything? Today is the Aids day, it's very important to fight and be concern with the prejudice also - until the new drugs can be tested on those 3 groups again, I think that is very risky to point the finger to anyone. Thanks to understand.

Chgo46, , 2008-12-01 17:49:12
and after 20 years, no one were able to find better medications to avoid this problem, or they are just not looking for it? Very weird. (The HIV/AIDS face and stigma can kill as much as lots of diseases)