January 20, 2010: Human immunodeficiency virus is a member of retrovirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome wherein, body immune system fails, further leading to life-threatening opportunistic infections.

Cardiovascular diseases are likely to cause death in HIV infected patients. Increased risk of metabolic complications and cardiovascular diseases such as coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, and atherosclerosis are seen in HIV patient. This study was conducted to know whether vascular aging was increased in HIV – infected patients receiving antiretroviral therapy.

Study was conducted with 400 HIV-infected patients who underwent cardiometabolic investigation to study the risk of cardiovascular diseases in this population. Increased blood vessel damage leading to vascular aging was seen to be associated with factors such as increased age, male sex, alterations in blood pressure, duration of antiretroviral treatment, fasting glucose level, fasting serum triglyceride level, total cholesterol level, hypertension and presence of metabolic syndrome. Overall, 40.5% patients showed increased vascular ageing with an average increase of 15 years. Human immunodeficiency virus affected patients are more often seen with increased blood vessel ageing. CD⁺ cell count was notably increased in this population.

Therefore the study reports that HIV-infected patients show an increased vascular ageing due to the presence of other underlying factors. CD⁺ cell count is the only predictor for increased vascular complications. Increased CD4⁺ count can be a marker for cardiovascular diseases such as coronary artery disease and atherosclerosis in HIV-infected patients treated with antiretroviral therapy.

Source: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/648080

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Written by: Healthplus24 team
Date last updated: January 20, 2010