AbstracObjective: Evaluate cardiac dysfunction in HIV infected children and to assess the severity of disease with cardiac dysfunction Design: Longitudinal observational study. Setting: Pediatric wards, Pediatric intensive care unit and ART clinic of high resource tertiary care centre. Method: A study enrolled 144 HIV positive subjects between the age group of 18 months to 12 years. Clinical and immunological evaluation was done to classify cases according to WHO clinical and immunological classification. Children with congenital and acquired heart diseases were excluded from the study. Detail history of duration of illness, duration of therapy and ART drug was obtained. Detail general and systemic evaluation was performed. Electrocardiogram, chest radiograph, 2D echocardiography and CD4 count were done in all patients. Result: In this study, male to female ratio was 1.18:1. ECG abnormality was detected in 42.36% cases. Abnormal chest X ray was reported in 33.33% cases. 2 D Echocardiography showed diastolic dysfunction in 19.44%, pericardial effusion in 11.8%, systolic dysfunction in 5.5%, pulmonary hypertension in 7.64%, dilated cardiomyopathy in 5.5%, mitral regurgitation in 3.5% and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in 0.7% cases. Maximum number of cases with echo abnormality was observed in WHO clinical stage III and stage IV disease. Conclusion: Echocardiography is a useful technique for the early recognitation and treatment of cardiac dysfunction in HIV positive patient. Echocardigraphic measures of left ventricular structure and function are independent and potentially useful long-term and short-term predictors of overall mortality in such children.

Keywords: AIDS, CD4 count, Echocardiogram, HIV.