Whole-body DXA evaluation in HIV patients

Background After the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy for the treatment of HIV infection, metabolic abnormalities were increasingly observed, associated with both protease inhibitors and nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, characterized by abnormal fat distribution in the body (lipoatrophy, lipohypertrophy or both), hyperglycemia and lean tissue mass wasting. However such metabolic changes are not always treatment related, having a multifactorial etiology. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) evaluates the quantity of body fat and lean tissue and their distribution, allowing the diagnosis of both quantitative and qualitative changes.