HIV Infection: What Rheumatologists Need to Know

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Table 2: Important Rheumatology/HIV Drug-Drug Interactions.
Source: Lexicomp Online, Interactions, Hudson, Ohio: Lexi-Comp Inc.; March 12, 2015

Numerous glucocorticoids use CYP3A4 as their major route of metabolism and, thus, are vulnerable to profound pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic fluctuations in the presence of these HIV drugs. The frequency and magnitude of these drug–drug interactions with glucocorticoids as a class are not well known, regardless of the route of administration (e.g., oral, intra or periarticular, inhaled as well as other routes).

For rheumatologists and advanced practitioners in rheumatology, extreme caution should be exercised when using glucocorticoids in patients on these HIV drugs. The situation appears most critical for our specialty with regard to the interaction of ritonavir and/or protease inhibitors with the administration of intrarticular or soft tissue triamcinolone, which has been reported to induce an iatrogenic hypercortisolism within a few weeks, as well as secondary adrenal insufficiency following a single injection. These cases have recently been reviewed.²² For oral administration of prednisone or prednisolone, no formal recommendations have been made for dose adjustment, although at the minimum, extreme caution should be exercised with their use (see Table 2). Most importantly, if new medications are contemplated in a patient with HIV infection already on therapy, a specific discussion about the possible ramifications should be had with the HIV caregiver.

In 2015, we rarely see treatable or untreatable opportunistic infections [in AIDS patients]; however, we are formidably challenged with the sequelae of persistent immune activation.

Summary & Conclusion

The epidemic of HIV infection will be with us all for the rest of our professional lives. With the increased life expectancy of the HIV population, rheumatologists and advanced practioners will be called upon to see both directly related and incidental rheumatic disorders. Rheumatologists need to incorporate screening and diagnostic HIV testing into their practices and be capable of diagnosing HIV-related disorders. Finally, when managing HIV-infected patients with rheumatic disorders, rheumatologists and advanced rheumatology practioners need to be able to treat both effectively and safely, with the armamentarium of anti­inflammatory and immunosuppressive drugs.

Leonard H. Calabrese, DO, is professor of medicine at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, Ohio; the RJ Fasenmyer Chair of Clinical Immunology; the Theodore F. Classen, DO, Chair of Osteopathic Research and Education; and vice chairman of the Department of Rheumatic and Immunologic Diseases.

Elizabeth Kirchner, MSN, CNP, is director of patient care for the R.J. Fasenmyer Center for Clinical Immunology and has been a nurse practitioner for 15 years in the Department of Rheumatic and Immunologic Diseases at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

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