[The place of therapeutic education in the care of an HIV-positive patient].

Since the advent of triple therapy, HIV has become a chronic disease. Therapeutic patient education (TPE) seems to have a place in this accompaniment, which has sometimes lasted several decades. The role of a nurse in TPE is still essential for the accompaniment of an HIV positive patient.

[Care and information for an HIV-positive patient].

Since the year 2000, AIDS has become a chronic disease that can be treated and monitored. The two specific and necessary parameters for monitoring patients are the CD4 lymphocyte rate, which indicates the state of the immune system, and the viral load, which makes it possible to monitor the effectiveness of the antiretroviral treatments prescribed; in addition, blood antiretroviral drugs can be measured in certain cases. Today, it is clear that a patient who is effectively treated with an undetectable viral load is no longer a contaminant and that he or she will live with the disease, while facing the health issues common to everyone: emotional life, aging, other pathologies.

Impact of atazanavir-based HAART regimen on the carotid intima-media thickness of HIV-infected persons: a comparative prospective cohort.

Objective: With the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy regimens, it is crucial to consider their long-term benefits to risk ratios among HIV-infected persons. The impact of protease inhibitors on the cardiovascular risk is controversial.

Design: This observational cohort was designed to investigate the cardiovascular impact of boosted atazanavir (ATV/r), a protease inhibitor that does not provide major dyslipidemia or insulin resistance.

Metabolic syndrome: a major risk factor for atherosclerosis in HIV-infected patients (SHIVA study).

Objective: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is directly related to a high incidence of cardiovascular disease in the general population. The association is more doubtful among HIV-infected patients, although MetS has an elevated prevalence in this population. We explored the impact of MetS on early atherosclerosis markers.

Correlations between carotid IMT, factor VIII activity level and metabolic disturbances: a cardio-vascular risk factor in the HIV positive persons.

In the HIV infection, the short time-scale between the HIV-induced cardiovascular events and the onset of antiretroviral therapy elicits a thrombophilic co-factor that worsens the induced atherosclerosis. We compared the factor VIII plasma activity, previously implicated in arterial and venous thrombosis, with a surrogate marker of atherosclerosis, the carotid intima-media thickness, and with the usual atherosclerosis risk factors in 154 HIV infected outpatients. The FVIII plasma activity is significantly associated with the carotid intima-media thickness and, strongly, with blood glucose and triglycerides levels.

Premature atherosclerosis in HIV positive patients and cumulated time of exposure to antiretroviral therapy (SHIVA study).

Background: With the advent of antiretroviral therapy regimens in HIV positive patients, it is crucial to consider their long-term benefits to risk ratios. The responsibility of treatment in premature atherosclerosis is not clear. Thus, the aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of exposure to reverse transcriptase inhibitors (nucleosidic and non-nucleosidic) and to protease inhibitors on the cardiovascular status of an entire hospital based cohort of patients.

HIV-1 genetic diversity in Western Brittany, France.

We describe human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) diversity in Western Brittany, France, and trace the dissemination of HIV-1 non-B subtype infection. The strategy for HIV-1 subtyping used involved subtype specific enzyme immunoassays, heteroduplex mobility assays and phylogenetic analysis of the sequences of env encoding the V3 loop region. Samples were obtained from 567 patients: 465 (82%) were of subtype B and 66 (11.