Sonographic assessment of facial HIV-related lypoatrophy.

Objective: To investigate the utility of ultrasonography (US) for assessing and grading facial lypoatrophy (FLA) in patients with HIV.

Design: The social effect of FLA is huge and may reduce antiretroviral therapy adherence. Strategies for the early detection of FLA are crucial, because complete correction of FLA in late stages is unlikely.

Methods: Fifty-two HIV-positive patients undergoing highly active antiretroviral therapy underwent US with nasogenian transversal scan using a high-frequency broadband transducer (5-17 MHz) to detect FLA. Intra- and interobserver variability were calculated to assess US reproducibility. Concerning FLA grading, patients were categorized in five clinical classes and four US classes.

Results: Our results regarding inter- and intraobserver coefficients of variation permit the validation of US as a reproducible technique (p<.001), and a high correlation between US and clinical classification was obtained, with complete concordance for more advanced FLA classes.

Conclusions: The lack of a reference objective method to quantify subcutaneous fat is a major difficulty in measuring HIV-related FLA. Our results, in accordance with data from the literature, suggest that US is an ideal tool for assessing and grading FLA. Furthermore, US may be suitable for routine evaluation in HIV-infected patients for early detection of FLA and to select its optimal management.