AIDS Treatment Update, Issue 61-62, January-February 1998

However, research presented recently at the Annual Conference of the Australasian Society of HIV Medicine suggests that there, the problem is common. Using DEXA scans, which can measure the proportion of fat in specific areas of the body, the researchers found that 64% of protease inhibitor recipients developed lipodystrophy after an average of 10 months of treatment. Compared with the 36% of treated people who did not experience the syndrome, patients with lipodystrophy lost an average of 0.51 kg of weight per month. Lipodystrophy developed earlier and was more severe among people taking the combination of saquinavir/ritonavir compared with those taking indinavir.

But as Professor Tony Pinching of St Bartholomew's Hospital pointed out, "if you use a sensitive diagnostic technique you may well pick up changes even when the affected individual has not noticed any difference. As sum marised, the Australian research doesn't tell us what proportion of the affected people had discernible symptoms, or for how many it was a significant problem. At Barts we're certainly seeing patients with some redistribution of body fat, but the number for whom it is a significant problem is currently very small."

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