Objective: To determine the prevalence of rheumatic diseases in HIV-infected patients at Siriraj Hospital, Thailand.
Material and Method: 178 patients who attended the HIV-Clinic at Siriraj Hospital between November 2002 and February 2003 were examined for the presence of rheumatic diseases. Diagnosis of HIV infection was performed by ELISA and confirmed by partial agglutination testing. HIV-infected patients were classified according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) 1993 revised classification system. Standard criteria were used to classify the rheumatic diseases.
Results: 98 patients had rheumatic diseases. Seventy-seven patients were treated with antiretroviral drugs. Forty-nine patients had mechanical low back pain, twenty-four patients had arthralgia, nineteen patients had plantar fasciitis, eighteen patients had nonspecific myalgia, thirteen patients had fibromyalgia, and eleven patients had others. Arthralgia was associated significantly with Quadricept muscle wasting (p = 0.00001). Nonspecific myalgia was more likely to be associated with female (p = 0.018) and less likely with use of antiretroviral therapy (p = 0.031).
Conclusion: Rheumatic diseases were commonly found in HIV-infected patients. Arthralgia associated with wasting Quadricep muscle. Nonspecific myalgia was predominant in female and without antiretroviral drug treatment.

Keywords: Reactive arthritis, Reiter’s syndrome, Psoriatic arthritis, HIV-associated arthritis, Septic arthritis, Mycobacterium infection, Rheumatic fever, Fibromyalgia, Arthralgia, Plantar fasciitis, Back pain, Retroviruses, HIV, Human immune deficiency viral infection