Metabolic acidosis in HIV-infected patients.

Abstract
SIR—We read with interest the recent article by Boubaker et al. [1], which described patients with hyperlactatemia who were receiving antiretroviral therapy in the Swiss HIV Cohort Study. Dr. Boubaker and colleagues found that 73 (8.3%) of 880 patients in a cross-sectional study had an elevated lactate level and that only 1 patient developed severe lactic acidosis. Lactic acidosis is a metabolic acidosis (pH level, µ7.37) with an anion gap of µ16 mM. Therefore, we would like to report the preliminary results from a retrospective cohort study that evaluated 100 patients to determine the incidence of metabolic acidosis (pH level, µ7.37) with an anion gap of µ16 mM.