Endocrine Dysfunction in Iranian Men Infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)

HIV infection is a chronic disease in which different endocrine glands could be involved either directly by the virus itself or indirectly by many factors especially oportunistic infections at the late stages of the disease. bacause the duration and the manifestations of the infection is related to the General factors, we evaluated the hypophysial, thyroid, adrenal and the gonadal hormones in 15 adult HIV+ Iranian men, categorized in various clinical stages. Although there were no obvious clinical manifestations, but the present data showed a positive correlation between the decline of T3 and CD4+ peripheral blood cells(r=0.87,p<0.05). Although the mean of PTH level in patients was less than seronegative controls (p<0.01), and there was a positive correlation between the decline of PTH and CD4+ blood cells (r=0.88,p<0.05) but this decline was not to that level which causes alteration in calcium homostasis. The mean of patients growth hormone levels was lower than seronegative age matched controls (p<0.01), but this decline was mainly due to low levels of this hormone in hemophiliacs. Basal serum cortisol level was high in 80% of patients but the increment in ACTH levels were only seen in those patients who had higher percents of CD4+ cells Serum testosterone was elevated in 5, decreased in others and there was no normal correlation between the concenteration of this hormone and gonadotropins. There were high estradiol and prolactin levels in 33% of patients who and low testosterone and gonadotropins, with previously proven hepatit dysfunction probably due to hemochromatosis .