Cardiac autoimmunity in HIV related heart muscle disease

摘要

Conclusions-There is an increased fre- quency of circulating cardiac specific autoantibodies in HIV positive individu- als, particularly those with heart muscle disease. The data support a role for cardiac autoimmunity in the pathogenesis of HIV related heart muscle disease, and suggest that cardiac autoantibodies may be markers of the development of left ventricular dysfunction in HIV positive patients with normal hearts. Objective-To assess the frequency of cir- culating cardiac specific autoantibodies in HIV positive patients with and without echocardiographic evidence of left ven- tricular dysfunction.