Risk Factors for Developing ADC: Highlights of Neurological Research from the VIII International Conference on AIDS, Amsterdam, July 19-24, 1992

Risk Factors for Developing ADC: Highlights of Neurological Research from the VIII International Conference on AIDS, Amsterdam, July 19-24, 1992

Seattle Treatment Education Project: STEP Perspective - Volume 4, Number 3 - October 1992
Lyn Frumkin, M.D., Ph.D.

A provocative study by Dr. Justin McArthur of John Hopkins University matched persons enrolled in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study on a number of epidemiologic, clinical, and laboratory variables. Risk factors for the development of ADC were older age at onset of AIDS, lower hemoglobin and weight six to 12 months before the initial diagnosis of AIDS (presumably when the person was asymptomatic and seropositive). Hemoglobin is the molecule that is present in red blood cells and helps the cell carry oxygen in the blood; it can be affected by hundreds of factors, including deficiencies of iron or Vitamin B12 that result in anemia (reduction below normal in red blood cell number of hemoglobin).

For all groups in the above study, the overall risk of developing ADC was about 10 percent for the first two years after the diagnosis of AIDS. However, when hemoglobin levels prior to the onset of AIDS were considered, the risk of developing ADC one year after the diagnosis of AIDS was 21 percent if hemoglobin levels were 10.4 gm/dl and five percent if hemoglobin was 16.1 gm/dl.

COMMENT: The basis for the hemoglobin-weight-ADC association is unclear, and may be "correlative" (A is associated with B) rather than "causative" (A causes or directly contributes to B). Nevertheless, the above data suggest that nutritional or biochemical factors may play a role in increasing the risk of HIV-infected persons developing ADC. A recent report found that specific nutritional abnormalities such as Vitamin B6 and B12 deficiencies occur in many asymptomatic HIV-infected persons (AIDS, Volume 6, 701-709, 1992). This raises the issue of which specific nutritional abnormalities may relate to the weight-hemoglobin-ADC association. Finally, it does not necessarily follow that because certain vitamin or nutritional deficits can occur in persons who are HIV-infected, a person with normal nutrition or vitamin levels will "ward off" ADC by taking excessive supplements or vitamins. This needs to be mentioned because vitamin supplements (particular Vitamin B6) can also cause problems when taken in excessive (and nearly always mega-) doses.
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This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
©1992. AEGIS.