Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34348754›Full record

ArticleAIDS research and therapy2021

Association between Veterans Aging Cohort Study (VACS) index and neurocognitive function among people living with HIV-a cross sectional study in coastal South India.

Archana Ganapathy, Basavaprabhu Achappa, Vaman Kulkarni, Deepak Madi, Ramesh Holla, Unnikrishnan Bhaskaran, Priya Rathi, Soundarya Mahalingam, Nikhil Victor Dsouza

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Article in AIDS research and therapy, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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3 · Its place in the literature

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1 citing paper in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Archana GanapathyKasturba Medical College, Mangalore, Karnataka, India.
Basavaprabhu AchappaManipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India. bachu1504@gmail.com.ORCID 0000-0002-4178-3377
Vaman KulkarniManipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
Deepak MadiManipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
Ramesh HollaManipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
Unnikrishnan BhaskaranManipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
Priya RathiManipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
Soundarya MahalingamManipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
Nikhil Victor DsouzaManipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundHIV is an infectious disease affecting 36.7 million people worldwide. In recent times, Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) has become accessible to the majority of People Living with HIV (PLHIV) and this has transformed the course of infection to one that is chronic, characterized by fewer diseases pathognomonic of AIDS. In view of this, there is a pressing need for better markers, apart from the routine HIV indicators, to detect comorbidities such as Neurocognitive Impairment (NCI). The aim of this study was to find out the association between Veterans Aging Cohort Study (VACS) index and Neurocognitive function in HIV positive patients.

methodsIn our study, we included 97 HIV positive patients and their Neurocognitive function was assessed using a combination of Montreal Cognitive Assessment and Grooved Pegboard Test, while VACS index was calculated using the most recent laboratory values. Binomial Logistics Regression analyses, adjusting for potential confounding variables, was performed to determine the association between VACS score and Neurocognitive Impairment.

resultsWe found that a higher VACS Index was associated with global and domain-wise Neurocognitive impairment (p < 0.01), specifically in the domains of attention (p < 0.01) and fine motor skills (p = 0.01). Our study also showed that among all the VACS components, older age (p = 0.02) and lower hemoglobin (p < 0.01) values were associated with global NCI. After plotting an ROC curve, a VACS cut-off score of 11.00 was identified as it had good sensitivity (87.0%) and specificity (71.4%) in identifying Global NCI.

conclusionOur findings extend prior research on the use of VACS Index to predict global and domain-wise NCI in HIV-positive patients. However, further research with more comprehensive neurocognitive testing is required in our setting before VACS Index can be used as a tool to screen for neurocognitive dysfunction among PLHIV.

Indexed as

CognitionHIV InfectionsVeteransAgingCohort StudiesCross-Sectional StudiesHumansIndiaCD4 cell countCognitionComorbidityHIVVACS Index

Identifiers

PMID34348754
PMCPMC8336242

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