Originally published March 6 2005
HIV drug can cause arrhythmia in a small percentage of patients, says Mayo Clinic
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
About one percent of patients taking protease-inhibitors to combat the transition of HIV to full-blown AIDS suffer from potentially fatal heart arrhythmias, according to a new study by researchers the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. They found that in some people, the protease-inhibitors interrupted the communication between certain cells, leading to irregular heartbeat. Doctors caution that this does not mean people should discontinue taking protease-inhibitors, but that the medical community needs to be aware of the potential heart risk.
In collaboration with colleagues from the HIV Program of Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis; the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and University of Wisconsin, Madison, the Mayo Clinic researchers made the discovery about a class of prescription drugs known as "HIV protease inhibitors."
The researchers emphasize that the drugs' therapeutic benefits are still greater than the risk of heart problems linked to their use.
They urge physicians to apply this new finding by following their patients more closely over the long term, and by looking specifically for heart rhythm irregularities in vulnerable individuals.
They encourage physicians to be especially thorough when performing medical exams, and in taking patient histories to be alert for signs of heart rhythm disturbances.
"In no way does it mean patients shouldn't receive protease inhibitors," says Andrew Badley, M.D., associate director of Mayo Clinic's Program in Translational Immunovirology and Biodefense.
"Our findings should not jeopardize the availability of protease inhibitors because these drugs are too important for the successful treatment of HIV viral infection and control of AIDS.
Dr. Ackerman is director of Mayo Clinic's Long QT Syndrome Clinic and Sudden Death Genomics Laboratory that specializes in various diseases and conditions that make a person vulnerable to sudden death by a ventricular arrhythmia.
Dr. Badley's research group earlier discovered that protease inhibitors affect "pore function" of "channels" in a specific cell type they were studying.
They investigated the hypothesis that the widely-used protease inhibitors may, in fact, be linked to the development of heart rhythm problems through the mechanism of blocking a channel.
Ultimately researchers from the University of Wisconsin led by Craig January, M.D., Ph.D., discovered that protease inhibitors do block these key channels.
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