Title : HIV infection and heart disease
Abstract:
HIV infection is associated with high rates of Cardiovascular disease complications, including acute myocardial infarction, sudden cardiac death, and heart failure. It has been found that patients with HIV have a 2-fold risk of Cardiovascular disease and 50 percent increased risk of Acute Myocardial Infarction as compared to the general population.
Antiretroviral therapy has dramatically improved the prognosis and survival rates for patients with HIV since it is highly successful at containing HIV infection. However, as HIV infected patients treated with ART have a significantly increased lifespan, the risk of chronic diseases has emerged. Cardiovascular complications are now an increased cause of mobility and mortality in the HIV infected population, especially in developed countries.
Treatment of HIV infection is associated with altered myocardial structure and function, higher rates of edema, fibrosis and pericardial effusion. This may be explained by the fact that there is chronic systemic inflammation in HIV, which affects the myocardium and pericardium.
Antiretroviral therapy has also been associated with decrease risk of valvular heart disease but an increase in peripheral and coronary arterial diseases.
Prevention of cardiovascular diseases should take precedence in management of HIV-infected individuals. Some of the measures taken currently include selection of ART regimens with the least adverse effects, and taking steps to prevent traditional Cardiovascular risk factors wherever possible. The implementation of cardiovascular risk-prediction models specially tailored for HIV and the administration of drugs in addition to ART that could further reduce proatherogenic HIV-specific immune activation could be potential approaches to prevent CHD in HIV-infected persons.
Audience Take Away Notes
- Commonly found changes in cardiac structure and function, biochemical parameters in patients with HIV infection
- Prevalence and the clinical significance of the findings
- Possible methods of prevention and therapy
- This review will update the audience about ongoing clinical research and progress made so far in this regard, and the questions that need to be answered in the future.
