Bone Mineral Loss Is Linked With Advanced HIV Disease

Researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report in the January 28 online edition of the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases that the duration of HIV disease, along with traditional risk factors for osteopenia, plays a more significant role in bone mineral loss among HIV-positive people than the use of antiretroviral drugs. The scientists studied 93 patients and discovered a strong association between the duration of HIV infection and bone mineral loss, with patients who were infected the longest having the highest incidences of the condition. No link was found between bone mineral loss and any anti-HIV drug or drug class. Patients experiencing bone min-eral loss also were shown to be somewhat more likely to smoke, to have a history of steroid use lasting more than one month, to have low current weight and low body mass index, and to have low truncal fat and low peripheral fat mass, all of which can contribute to the condition.