Pulmonary Hypertension and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection. Two Reports and a Review of the Literature

Pulmonary hypertension may be primary (idiopathic) or secondary. While the etiologies for secondary pulmonary hypertension are diverse, infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has not been included. To date there have been 16 reported cases of pulmonary hypertension in the HIV-infected population. Plexogenic arteriopathy was the most common pathologic finding. We report two HIV-infected patients who were concomitantly found to have pulmonary hypertension with plexogenic arteriopathy. One patient had lymphocytic interstitial pneumonitis, an entity not previously associated with pulmonary hypertension. We review the 16 previous cases of pulmonary hypertension and HIV infection and discuss this association.