Parkinsonism in HIV infected patients during antiretroviral therapy – data from a Brazilian tertiary hospital

Luis Filipe Dehner, Mariana Spitz, João Santos Pereira

Advances in the treatment of HIV infection in the last decades have increased life expectancy of these patients and raise the question of what kind of effect chronic infection and its treatment might exert on the behavior of age-related conditions such as neurodegenerative diseases. We performed a retrospective analysis of patients' records to assess the frequency of the association between HIV infection and parkinsonian symptoms in our hospital population. Among 249 records we identified four individuals with reported parkinsonian symptoms initiated after HIV diagnosis. Three of them had no other identifiable cause of secondary parkinsonism. All had symptom onset before the age of 60. Based on this study sample one could estimate an incidence rate of nearly 101 per 100.000 person/year, which is similar to the risk of Parkinson's disease in the general population above 70 years. These findings suggest that HIV infected individuals might be at a higher risk for developing parkinsonism as a manifestation of early neurodegeneration. Prospective and larger studies are needed to address this particular association and its characteristics.