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People with HIV, even those whose
virus is well-suppressed by treatment, have a greater risk of heart attack than
their uninfected peers, and at an earlier age, new research shows.
Dr. Priscilla Y. Hsue, a
cardiologist at San Francisco General Hospital, and colleagues reported their
findings, which confirm a link that some AIDS experts have long suspected, in
the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
“I think most cardiologists and most
HIV specialists are not really aware of this,” said Hsue, who treats many AIDS
patients in her practice. “Most of the people I see are referred to me after
they’ve had a heart attack, a bypass, a stent. To me, that’s too late. We
should be screening people for coronary disease, aggressively treating blood
pressure, aggressively treating cholesterol.”
Dr. Paul M. Ridker of Harvard
Medical School, who was not involved with Hsue’s research, but who led
pioneering studies establishing the connection between heart disease and
inflammation, said both HIV and the drugs to treat it cause chronic
inflammation that likely increases the risk of heart attack. HIV medicines
cause the liver to make more cholesterol, he said. In addition, HIV can cause
“leaky gut syndrome,” in which inflammatory microbes enter the blood.
Jose Raneda, a 48-year-old former
attorney from Milwaukee, has known he was HIV-positive since age 21. He started
on HIV drug cocktails as soon as they came on the market and never had a low
CD4 count or an AIDS-related infection. Though always slim, Raneda had his
first of two heart attacks at age 40. “I asked my HIV doctor if it was related,
and he said it wasn’t,” he said.
“At the time, we didn’t have a lot
of solid evidence of the connection,” said Dr. Ian H. Gilson, Raneda’s former
physician at the Medical College of Wisconsin. “I’d tell him something
different now.”
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
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