Notice from the Editorial board

Abstract

Prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection remains high globally. Even though the number of new cases decreased over the last decade up to 23%, in 2019, 1.7 million acquired HIV-infection, and the overall number of persons, living with HIV, reached 38 million. As by June 2020, 26 million accessed antiretroviral therapy (ART), however despite decrease of mortality rate, observed since 2014, nearly 700 000 patients died from HIV-associated conditions in 2019 [1]. Prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in HIV-infected population in 2018 varied from about 1% in the Middle East region to 7.0-7.4% in Africa and North America, and in Europe estimated as 2.5% [2]. First description of collapsing glomerulopathy, also known as HIV-associated nephropathy (HIVAN) comes back to 1984 [3]; later on, other variants of kidney damage, associated with HIV-infection had been described, and during the last almost 25 years, several groups attempted to classify the pathological varieties of kidney diseases in HIV-infected individuals. Finally, the conclusions from a Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) Controversies Conference published in the Kidney International in 2018 [4]. Proposed classification includes various immune complex diseases, classic collapsing focal segmental glomerulosclerosis/HIVAN and other podocytopathies, tubulointerstitial damage, including mictocystic changes, kidney damage, resulting from opportunistic infections, complications of ART, and even diabetic nephropathy and age-related nephrosclerosis. Given such diverse patterns, found in the setting of HIV, kidney biopsy remains the gold standard for the diagnostics of kidney disease in HIV-infected persons [5]. ART implementation associated with the lower incidence of classic HIVAN and decrease of CKD 5 progression risk, however the incidence of other variants, such as immune complex damage, tend to increase [6, 7]. For HIV-positive patients on ART, survival on dialysis is comparable to HIV-negative patients, and kidney transplantation in HIV-positive recipients on ART is associated with high recipient and allograft survival rates [4]. To conclude - kidney disease in HIV-infected persons is a broad topic, including epidemiology, clinical presentation, kidney pathology, and disease pathomorphism on ART, ART complications, outcomes and kidney replacement therapy for HIV-positive patients and many other problems. Unfortunately, these issues rarely covered in the “Nephrology and Dialysis” journal. In order to bridge the gap we prepared a special supplement, fully devoted to the different aspects of kidney disease, associated with HIV. The editorial board and the authors hope that readers, both practitioners and researches, will make use of these publications. Dr Elena V. Zakharova, Nephrology and Dialysis journal deputy-editor