Aids Virus Raises Heart Disease Risk In Hiv-infected People
Ultrasound imaging studies of 433 people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV, found more hardening and thickening in the carotid artery, compared with those not infected, said Carl Grunfeld, professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco and an endocrinologist at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.
The study, which appeared today online in the journal AIDS, said the thickened carotid arteries place HIV-positive men and women at higher risk for heart attack and stroke. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta estimates more than 1.1 million people in the U.S. have HIV, spokeswoman Jennifer Horvath said.
“At least 1 million people with HIV and many more in the developing world need to start thinking about their heart,” Grunfeld said in a telephone interview.
Cholesterol-lowering medicines already are recommended for people who have a high risk, which means 20 percent or more probability, of having a heart attack within 10 years, he said. Treating people at intermediate risk — who have a 10 percent to 20 percent likelihood of heart attack — is considered a judgment call. Having HIV bumps anybody already in the intermediate group up a notch, he said.
Middle to High
“I am recommending that patients with HIV in the middle category be treated as if they were at high risk,” Grunfeld said in the interview.
The carotid-thickening seen in HIV patients wasnt caused by medications used to treat the AIDS virus infection that are known to worsen cholesterol, he added.
“This effect is so big that no drug or class of drugs stands out as being an effective contributor,” Grunfeld said in a statement. The study didnt determine exactly how HIV may boost atherosclerosis. Grunfeld said inflammation caused by the virus infection may play a role.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.