Omega-3 fatty acids have a therapeutic role to play in HIV-associated hypertriglyceridemia. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Severe HIV-associated hypertriglyceridaemia treated with rosuvastatin plus omega-3 fatty acids.
Int J STD AIDS. 2009 Aug;20(8):580-1. PMID: 19625595
Infectious Diseases Clinic, Department of Medicine and Aging, 'G. d'Annunzio' University, Chieti, Italy.
Compared with healthy controls, HIV patients already have abnormal lipoprotein concentrations before the initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), which worsen with the therapy. HAART-associated dyslipidaemia features fundamental proatherogenic changes such as increased plasma triglycerides (TGs), increased total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol as well as decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). The current guidelines for managing HIV-associated dyslipidaemia recommend diet and exercise counselling, alteration of HAART regimen or addition of lipid-lowering medications such as statins, fibrates and omega-3 (OM-3) fatty acids. Given that cardiovascular risk significantly increases with elevated lipid levels, selecting a drug to manage dyslipidaemia is particularly important. A case is described of an HIV patient who had severe hypertriglyceridaemia and bad metabolic parameters treated with rosuvastatin and OM-3 fatty acids. So we obtained a more marked reduction of TG levels than has never been described before in the literature, associated with a significant increase in HDL-C levels.