FRAM study and lipodystrophy: lipodystrophy study presented at Barcelona and an interview with the study author Carl Grunfeld

Carl Grunfeld MD, is a researcher and treating physician specialising in diabetes, endocrinology, lipodystrophy, and metabolic abnormalities. He treats HIV-negative and HIV-positive patients in San Francisco at the VA Hospital.

The goal of this study is to find out what contributes to the body changes HIV positive individuals are experiencing. Grunfeld’s reported findings from the FRAM study are preliminary and based only on analysis of less than all the men in the study, and does not include an analysis of the women. But his report was very controversial at the conference and still is very controversial, because his findings are at odds with some key beliefs we generally have come to accept about lipodystrophy. This article is a report of the FRAM study findings presented by Grunfeld at Barcelona and our telephone discussion about this study, and the syndrome of body changes patients are experiencing.