Craniofacial morphology of HIV-positive children and adolescents undergoing antiretroviral therapy: A pilot study

A Review of Basic Knowledge of HIV Infection for Orthodontic Management of HIV Patients

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that causes an infection affecting immunity-providing white blood cells. The HIV pandemic is far from over and is a major socio-economical burden. As there is no cure yet, prevention of new infections is the major path to control the infection. There is a low chance of orthodontic procedures carrying a risk of HIV infection transmission. It is important to have knowledge about the disease to effectively and safely treat known or unknown patients with HIV.

Morphological analysis of the skeletal development in lateral cephalometric radiographs of HIV infected children ongoing Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy

Background

To investigate the skeletal development of HIV infected children through a morphological analysis of the cervical vertebrae (CV) in lateral cephalometric radiographs.

Material and Methods

The sample consisted of 86 lateral cephalometric radiographs of male and female children aged between 6 and 14 years old. The radiographs were equally distributed in groups 1 (HIV infected children) and 2 (non-infected children, paired by sex and age). Two examiners analyzed the CV according to the method of Hassel and Farman (1995). Spearman correlation coefficient was used to associate age and skeletal development within groups, while Mann-Whitney test compared the skeletal development between groups.

Results

The correlation of age and skeletal development in group 1 reached 0.17, 0.27 and 0.27 (p >0.05) for C2, C3 and C4, respectively, while in group 2 it reached 0.65, 0.54 and 0.60, respectively (p <0.001). Differences were not significant between groups (p >0.05).

Conclusions

HIV infected and non-infected children showed a similar development of the CV. However, the weak correlation between age and CV development in HIV infected children highlights the need for careful decisions prior to therapeutic approaches – especially those founded on the prediction of skeletal development, such as maxillofacial surgeries, and orthopedic and orthodontic procedures.

Key words:Cervical vertebrae, growth and development, HIV, radiology.