Cervical lipomatosis in HIV‐infected patients: a case–control study

Objectives The aim of the study was to analyse the prevalence of cervical lipomatosis (CL) in HIV‐infected patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and the factors associated with its development. Methods This was a multicentre, observational, 1:1 case–control study. HIV‐infected patients with CL (cases) and HIV‐infected patients from the same cohort, controlled for age (±5 years), sex and body mass index (±2.5 kg/m2) (controls), were included in the study, and a multiple conditional logistic regression was performed to identify factors related to CL. Results CL was reported in 80 patients (1.8%) from a cohort of 4214 patients on HAART followed up in 10 Spanish hospitals. CL was associated with time of exposure to stavudine [for each 6‐month increase, odds ratio (OR) 5.82, 95% confidence interval (CI) 5.70–5.94, P=0.0073] and lipoatrophy (OR 8.04, 95% CI 2.93–22.02, P=0.00001). Conclusions Although lipodystrophy is very frequent among HIV‐infected patients on HAART, CL is an uncommon type of fat redistribution in this population, and in our cohort it was related to time of exposure to stavudine and lipoatrophy.