Renal Function Assessment in HIV Patient

Recent progress in antiretroviral therapy has turned HIV infection into a chronic disease. Patients survival has dramatically improved but complications may occur that need to be prevented and monitored. As much as 10 % of HIV patients may suffer from chronic kidney disease, an affection that is not symptomatic until a very late stage secondary to HIV infection, drugs exposure, hypertension or diabetes. Guidelines have suggested that renal function should be regularly assessed in HIV patients to perform early diagnosis for chronic kidney disease and allow initiation of preventive measures aimed at preserving renal function. Plasma creatinine dosage is the easiest way to evaluate renal function but glomerular filtration rate estimation from cockcroft or MDRD formulae is a much better indicator of renal function. Other markers like cystatin C may be used. None of these markers has been validated in HIV patients. Therefore our study is aimed at comparing validity of creatinine clearance estimation with Cockcroft and Gault and MDRD formula and cystatin C compared to the gold standard measurement of glomerular renal function.