Aspects of body composition in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.

In the mid-1980s, body composition studies of symptomatic AIDS patients, utilizing total body potassium counting and isotope dilution. indicated that the pattern weight loss observed in advanced HIV infection was similar to a stressed or injured state, rather than one of starvation. A disproportionate depletion of body cell mass (of which skeletal muscle is a major component), relative to loss of body weight, was seen along with a relative expansion of the extracellular fluid volume The same researches observed that this decline in body cell mass was predictive of mortality. Cross-sectional studies in HIV infection have also indicated that a reduction in body cell mass can occur early in the disease process; these studies utilising bioelectrical impedance analysis as a means of body composition assessment.