Chest X-ray findings in HIV-infected Highly Active Antiretroviral Treatment (HAART) - naive patients

Introduction: Patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection frequently present with a wide spectrum of pulmonary and cardiac complications from the virus, opportunistic infections and neoplasms that may be associated with a high mortality rate. Diseases of the respiratory tract account for about half of deaths from AIDS, while cardiac diseases account for more than a quarter of deaths from AIDS. This study aimed at determining the prevalence of pulmonary and cardiac diseases using a chest radiograph in HAART-naive HIV-infected patients. Methods: This study was conducted at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) HIV clinic between September 2010 and August 2011 amongst all registered HAART-naive HIV/AIDS patients. Patients had posterior-anterior chest radiographs done in full inspiration. Participants were asked and aided to fill the structured questionnaires to obtain demographic data. Results: Out of a total of one hundred and two recruited for the study, 54 (52.94%) had a normal chest radiograph, while 48 (47.06%) had abnormal chest radiograph. The abnormal findings included, 27.45% who had bronchopneumonia, 6.86% cardiomegaly, 5.88% pulmonary tuberculosis, 5.88% radiological features of congestive cardiac failure, and 0.98% bronchitis. Conclusion: It appears that more than half of HAART-naive HIV-infected patients have normal chest radiographs. Bronchopneumonia (27.5%) is the commonest pulmonary abnormality associated with HIV infection, while the prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis is 5.88%.