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. 2023 Sep 6;59(9):1605.
doi: 10.3390/medicina59091605.

Ophthalmological Manifestations in People with HIV from Northeastern Romania

Mihaela Cobaschi  1   2 , Isabela Ioana Loghin  3   4 , Victor Daniel Dorobăț  1   5 , George Silvaș  4 , Șerban Alin Rusu  4 , Vlad Hârtie  3   6 , Victoria Aramă  1   2
Affiliations

Ophthalmological Manifestations in People with HIV from Northeastern Romania

Mihaela Cobaschi et al. Medicina (Kaunas). .

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Although ocular disorders can occasionally impact people with HIV over the course of their illness, HIV/AIDS is unmistakably a multisystem disorder. A physician can rule out a wide range of ophthalmic problems with the assistance of an ophthalmologist, from adnexal disorders to posterior segment diseases, including those affecting the optic tract and optic nerve. Materials and Methods: Based on patient medical data from the "St. Parascheva" Clinical Hospital of Infectious Diseases in Iasi, we carried out a retrospective clinical investigation on patients with HIV/AIDS and ophthalmological conditions who were hospitalized in northeastern Romania. We seek to draw attention to the characteristics and ophthalmological comorbidities of HIV/AIDS patients. The studied period was between 1 January 1991 and 31 December 2022. Results: There were a total of 38 recorded cases of ophthalmological manifestations in the HIV-infected patients. The research group's average age was 37.31 years old (standard deviation 9.5693917). Males were primarily impacted, having lower total CD4+ T-lymphocyte levels based on sex and CD4+ T-lymphocyte levels overall. The HIV viral load was 999 268.13 copies/mL on average (standard deviation 1,653,722.9). Of all the patients, we found out that 17 had congenital eye diseases (44.73%) and the others (21, 55.26%) developed ophthalmological diseases. CMV Retinitis was found most frequently, in eight patients (21.05%), followed by Myopia in seven patients (18.42%). Conclusions: The key to the management of HIV-positive patients is a multidisciplinary approach and access to antiretroviral therapy. Anyone who is HIV-positive and experiences ocular symptoms at any time should be directed to seek professional ophthalmologic treatment as soon as feasible. A therapeutic holdup could result in irreversible vision loss. Long-term coordination is required to combat this disease, improving communication between the ophthalmology and infectious disease fields.

Keywords: CMV retinitis; HIV infection; ophthalmological diseases.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study case findings.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Romania’s northeast counties’ caseload distribution. The yellow color refers exactly to the Romania’s northeast counties.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Distribution of cases by HIV viral load and CD4+ T-lymphocyte count.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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