Neurocognitive functioning in a Romanian cohort of young adults with parenterally-acquired HIV-infection during childhood

The Romanian cohort can provide valuable information about the effect of chronic HIV-infection and exposure to combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) on the developing brain, based on its unique characteristics: young adults infected parenterally with HIV clade F in the late 1980s and exposed to cART for a decade. We conducted a prospective study using a neuropsychological test battery validated in other international HIV cohorts, in order to evaluate the rate and severity of neurocognitive impairment in a group of young Romanian adults. The 49 HIV-infected (HIV+) participants and the 20 HIV negative (HIV-) controls were similar for age and gender, although the HIV- group tended to be more educated. We found higher cognitive impairment prevalence in the HIV+ group (59.1 %) versus the HIV- group (10 %), and the impairment rate remained significantly higher even when the groups were matched based on the educational level (38.7 % for the HIV+ group vs. 10.0 % for the HIV- controls; p = 0.025). The nadir CD4 count was < 200 in 71.4 % of patients, but at the time of neurocognitive assessment, 89.5 % of patients had normal immunological status and 81.8 % undetectable HIV load. Among the HIV-impaired group, 26 % of the participants had syndromic impairment while the other 74 % had asymptomatic neurocognitive impairment. We found a high prevalence of neurocognitive dysfunction in the Romanian young adults growing-up with HIV. The greatest HIV-related cognitive deficits were in the domains of executive and motor functioning, consistent with a frontosubcortical pattern.