Objective: To describe the prevalence of cardiac abnormalities in the echocardiogram of children with AIDS followed up in a reference service at 18± months of AIDS confirmed diagnosis. Methods: A cross-section study with a cohort after 18± months of AIDS diagnosis. The study included a total of 93 children with a confirmed diagnosis of AIDS with vertical transmission, with no malignancies and who underwent echocardiogram (echo) during cardiologic evaluation. Cardiac abnormalities were assessed

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... n patients who were not treated (G1) and patients who were treated (G2) with combination antiretroviral therapy. Results : When diagnosed with AIDS, the children were on average 3.07 years old and 50.50% were female. The combination regimen with antiretroviral agents was used by 47 patients (G2). Cardiac involvement was present in 40 children (43.00%). The presence of left ventricular dysfunction (G1: 39.10%; G2: 10.0%) and the isolated enlargement of left ventricle (G1: .0%; G2: 14.90%) were the most frequent findings. We observed a significant association between the groups without and with combination antiretroviral therapy asregards the presence of left ventricular dysfunction (PR= 3.42; [1.41-8.2]; p = 0.02) and malnutrition (PR = 1.79; [1.00-3.20]; p = 0.04). Conclusion: Cardiac involvement was frequent in children with AIDS and left ventricular dysfunction was the most common abnormality on echocardiogram. There was a statistically significant difference between the groups with and without triple combination treatment as regards the presence of left ventricular dysfunction and malnutrition. (Arq Bras Cardiol 2008;90(1):11-17)