42 million peopleworldwide were infected with HIV

March 17, 2004 -- Surviving HIV may merely be portion of the battlefor folk alive with HIV. A current study shows namely the combative antiviral therapies thathave been honored for prolonging the lives of folk with HIV may too speedthe clogging of their arteries and put their heart health at risk. The results show that petrifying of the arteries, oratherosclerosis, is extra general and progresses extra fast in people beingtreated for HIV infection. Researchers mention by the near of 2002, 42 million peopleworldwide were infected with HIV, and approximately 40,000 fashionable cases are reported inthe U.S. each annual. The presentation of highly athletic antiretroviral therapy(HAART) in the mid- to late 1990s has dramatically reduced decease rates due toHIV. But for people with HIV are living longer, this learn suggeststhat they may face other health risks as a outcome of lengthened drugtreatment. The results emerge in today's publish of Circulation: Journalof the American Heart Association. HIV Treatment May Be New Heart Risk Factor "Our discovery suggests that it would be reasonable toconsider HIV infection a cardiac risk element," says researcher Priscilla Y.Hsue, MD, gopher instructor of medicine by the University of California, SanFrancisco, in a news loosen. "Other risk factors, such as tall cholesteroland high blood pressure, need apt be aggressively treated in HIV patients --even now it manner alterations in their HIV medications to control cholesterollevels." The study examined 148 people with HIV who had been infectedfor 11 years and remedied for an average of three years with protease inhibitorsas a part of HAART and likened them with 63 similarly matched healthyadults. Researchers use ultrasound to fathom the thickness of the wallof the carotid arteries, a criterion test accustomed to assess plaque buildup. Thismeasurement can foresee the risks of center bombards and stroke even afteradjusting for other traditional risk factors that have been correlated to heartdisease. They found that the average carotid aisle was significantly larger inHIV patients (0.91 mm) than in the control team (0.71mm). Areas of plaque buildup were found in 45% of the HIV patientscompared with only 24% of the others. When researchers followed up with a subgroup of these studyparticipants a annual later, they found the progression of atherosclerosis wassignificantly extra rapid in the HIV team. "In the HIV patients, the amplitude of atherosclerosis wasassociated with classical cardiac risk factors such as old, cholesterol levels,cigarette clouding, and high blood pressure," says Hsue. "There werealso indications that HIV infection itself may play a role, since patients withthe lowest CD4 immune cell counts (a marker of immunodeficiency) had thethickest carotid [artery thickness]."