HIV Digest	HIV Digest Archive

According to evidence presented at the 39th Annual Meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) are at greater risk for developing cardiovascular diseases.

"HAART therapy is associated with a variety of changes that go under the umbrella of lipodystrophy and hypercholesterolemia," said John Bartlett, MD, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "And increases in cholesterol and triglycerides are like it is for other populations without HIV infection-- it confers risk for heart disease."

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In the study, two groups of 3,000 HIV patients from the HIV Outpatient Study (HOPS) group, which is located in ten cities in the United States, were examined retrospectively. One group had taken protease inhibitors, and the other had not.

"When we looked at the rate of myocardial infarction in the HOPS cohort overall, the rates start significantly increasing after 1996, the time the protease inhibitor (PI) drugs were introduced," researchers said.

The increased risk appeared when HIV patients on PI regimens were compared to patients on non-PI regimens, including those that contain nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and non- nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors.

"It's way too early to say that PIs by themselves are going to automatically guarantee serious cardiovascular problems," said Kenneth Mayer, MD, professor of medicine and community health at Brown University. "Ten years ago, patients may not have lived long enough to be concerned about heart disease, but now they are," Mayer added.

Editor's Note: from AIDS Alert