Cardiovascular involvements in HIV-infected patients

Abstract

The lifespan of HIV-infected patients is increasing, and cardiovascular diseases becoming a major comorbidity and leading cause of death in this population due to high prevalence of the cardiac risk factors and possibly due to the use of antiretroviral therapy. Aggressive reduction of these risk factors and treatment of cardiovascular diseases are crucial to decrease the cardiovascular mortality in these patients.

Keywords::

• CAD
• cardiomyopathy
• HIV
• hypertension
• pleural effusion
• pulmonary hypertension

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The author has no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Key issues

• • Dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus, smoking and hypertension are more common in HIV-infected patients which contribute to the increase risk of cardiovascular events in this population.

• • Pre-mature coronary artery disease and stroke are common in HIV patients, and primary prevention for atherosclerosis is crucial.

• • Cardiomyopathy with decreased left ventricular dysfunction carries a very poor prognosis, close monitoring and the use of standard heart failure therapy is encouraged.

• • Pulmonary hypertension is common in HIV-infected patient, it might respond hemodynamically to the standard treatment of idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH); however it is still associated with very poor outcome.

• • There is a critical need to develop and validate a cardiovascular risk predictor model in HIV patients.