• HIV associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND): A systematic review study
  • Pedram Bolbolizade,1 Fatemeh Zahra Seyedkolbadi,2,* Fatemeh Zamani,3 Faezeh Mirshahi,4 ali salimi asl,5
    1. Student Research Committee, Faculty of Para Medicine, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abass, Iran
    2. Student Research Committee, Faculty of Medicine, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran
    3. Student Research Committee, Faculty of Para Medicine, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abass, Iran
    4. Student Research Committee, Faculty of Para Medicine, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abass, Iran
    5. Student Research Committee, Faculty of Medicine, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran


  • Introduction: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 2019 was about 38 million people. These days, due to the use of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), life expectancy has increased in these people and HIV has changed from a deadly disease to chronic disease. HAND includes asymptomatic neurological disorder (ANI), Motor neurological disorder (MND), and HIV-associated dementia. But, these days, due to the use of combined antiretroviral therapy (cART), the prevalence of severe manifestations has decreased, but mild manifestations are still common in the affected community. In this study, we intend to conduct a comprehensive and systematic review of existing studies in various fields of these disorders, including; Risk factors, their diagnostic methods, the epidemiology of disorders, and finally the treatment of HIV-associated neurological disorders.
  • Methods: In this study, our search was based on English and was conducted from 2015 to 2021 and was searched in PubMed, Science Direct, and Scopus databases. The keyword used for the search included HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder, HAND, cART. In the initial search, we came across 2,500 articles, and after reading the titles and summaries, we reduced it to 100. Finally, for the final data, we reduced the full text to 21 articles after reading it.
  • Results: We categorized the results of our study into sub-categories, which include; Risk factors are pathogenicity, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and epidemiology We examined these subheadings from different angles in the obtained articles, which we tried to cover completely, even with some limitations, to compare different examples of them and consider a good solution and diagnosis for it. In Risk factor, show some of the things that could increase the chance of developing these diseases and the clinical manifestations shows the most common characteristics of the patient who had developed HAND and In Diagnostics, we try to give you the common prosses that a doctor goes through to Diagnoses these diseases. Also, In the pathogen section, we examined the progression of the disease in patients and in the epidemiology section, we comprehensively examined its prevalence in Iran and abroad.
  • Conclusion: Although significant progress has been made in the HAND reviewed subheadings, many questions remain about the disease, and many of the methods that have been introduced and used in the diagnosis are not 100% certain and also can not yet fully withstand this epidemic. Let the disease stand and we hope to find more progress and more definitive solutions to it in the coming decades and apply it.
  • Keywords: HIV associated neurocognitive disorder, HAND, cART