Background Highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) has achieved infection control for human immunodeficiency virus type 1, decreasing the morbidity and mortality associated with it. But on the other hand, it can produce short and long-term side effects. Previous studies have shown that the ethnic Muslim population has a better lipid profile than the ethnic Christian population in Spain.

Purpose To analyse differences in the lipid profile, blood glucose levels, CD4 count and viral load (VL) between the ethnic Christian and Muslim populations with antiretroviral treatment in a university hospital.

Material and methods A descriptive cross-sectional study of patients with antiretroviral treatment, who collected medicines from the outpatient unit of our pharmacy department (PD). The information collected was: age, sex, current drug treatment (obtained from PD program) and glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, VL, CD4 count (obtained from the hospital’s clinical laboratory program). The results were analysed using SPSS version 15.0.

Results 85 patients were included; 47 (55.3%) were Christians and the rest Muslims. 59 (69.4%) were men, of whom 23 (39%) belonged to the Muslim ethnic and 36 (61%) to Christian ethnic. Of the 26 women, 15 (57.7%) were Muslim and 11 (42.3%) Christian. The mean age of patients was 47.8 years (SD: 10.1). We found 19 different pharmacological treatments and the most prescribed were: efavirenz/emtricitabine/tenofovir (32.9%), lopinavir/ritonavir monotherapy (29.4%) and lopinavir/ritonavir + emtricitabine/tenofovir (9.4%). 24 Christian and 11 Muslim patients had hypertriglyceridemia (value >150 mg/dL) with statistically significant differences (p = 0.039). 21 Christian patients had CD4 counts below 450/mmc; this number of patients was statistically significant (p = 0.044). No statistical significance was found in the other laboratory test values.

Conclusion Our results show that ethnic Christians had a higher rate of hypertriglyceridemia and low levels of CD4. However other studies would be needed to confirm these findings, which could contribute to a better selection of antiretroviral therapy.

References and/or Acknowledgements

1. Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo. Prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in a bicultural population (Muslim and Christian). Instituto Nacional de Gestión Sanitaria; 2005

2. Segura M, et al. Cardiovascular risk and inter-ethnic variability. XXXI National Congress of the Spanish Association of Nursing in Cardiology. 2010 [Abstract]

References and/or AcknowledgementsNo conflict of interest.