• Luciana Carla Neves de Brito, Marco Aurélio Camargo da Rosa, Vinicius Salomão Lopes, Efigênia Ferreira e Ferreira, Leda Quercia Vieira, and Antonio Paulino Ribeiro Sobrinho.
• Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
• J Endod. 2009 Sep 1; 35 (9): 1178-81.

IntroductionThe effects of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) on the prevalence of endodontic diseases in HIV-infected individuals have not been reported.MethodsThe purpose of this study was to determine and compare sex, age, need for root canal treatment, CD4 and CD8 lymphocyte counts, HIV viral load, and antiretroviral therapy in 222 HIV-infected individuals who were monitored at an HIV Reference Center in Brazil.ResultsOne hundred sixty-six patients comprised the studied population; the rate of the need for endodontic treatment was 14.5%. There was a positive correlation between the CD4 + T-cells count (< 500 cell/ mm(3)) and the need for endodontic treatment, but there was no statistical difference between the need for endodontic treatment and the HIV viral load or the CD4+/CD8+ ratio in T-cell counts. Of the population that needed endodontic treatment, 79.2% was taking the HAART regimen, and the majority of the studied population was female.ConclusionWe found that those HIV-infected individuals needing endodontic treatment had a lower CD4 + T-cell count, which probably correlated with a lower adherence to the HAART regimen.

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