• Two recent studies have examined the increased risk of cardiovascular disease in patients with HIV infection.

• Mary-Krause and colleagues have studied the impact of treatment with protease inhibitors on the occurrence of myocardial infarction in HIV-infected males.1 They used records on 19,795 patients from the French Hospital Database of individuals with HIV infection followed in 68 hospitals in France.

• There was a higher incidence rate of myocardial infarction per 10,000 person-years in these patients when compared to the general population. As you can see here, they also found a higher incidence rate among patients exposed to protease inhibitors for 18 months or more.

• Follow-up data have also been obtained from an ongoing, prospective, observational study of HIV-infected members of the Kaiser Permanente Northern California HMO.2

• Although their findings show a higher rate of coronary heart disease events among members with HIV infection, protease inhibitor use did not increase short-term risk.

References:

1. Mary-Krause M, Cotte L, Partisani M et al. Impact of treatment with protease inhibitor (PI) on myocardial infarction (MI) occurrence in HIV-infected men. Program and abstracts of the 8th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, Chicago, IL; February 4-8, 2001. Abstract 657.

2. Klein D, Hurley M, Sorel M, Sidney S. do protease inhibitors increase the risk for coronary heart disease among HIV-positive patients: follow-up. Program and abstracts of the 8th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, Chicago, IL; February 4-8, 2001. Abstract 655.