HIV Raises CVD Risk in Pre-Menopausal Women
Human immunodeficiency virus is an independent risk factor for what condition in pre-menopausal women?
A. Cardiovascular Disease
B. Asthma
C. Hyperthyroidism
D. IBS
Answer: A. Cardiovascular Disease
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Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in pre-menopausal women, according to a recent study.
Previous studies have suggested that HIV is associated with a higher risk for CVD, stroke, and subclinical atherosclerosis in women. It may benefit pre-menopausal women with HIV to be vigilant in reducing their risk for CVD, since these women tend to lose the cardio-protective effect of estrogen.
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For their study, the researchers assessed 9,635 women who had been included in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) datasets from 1999 to 2014. A total of 25 (0.25%) women were HIV-seropositive. Women who were ages 18 to 55 years, pre-menopausal, had no prior history of coronary artery disease (CAD), were tested for HIV, and had no missing data were included in the study.
The 10-year Framingham risk scores for developing CAD were determined for both HIV-positive and HIV-negative pre-menopausal women. The researchers compared individual risk factors for CAD, including blood pressure, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), C-reactive protein (CRP), smoking status, cholesterol level, family history of CVD. Patients’ intent to reduce their risk via exercise, dietary changes, medication use, and their doctors’ advice to reduce this risk via dietary counseling and monitoring exercise and weight were assessed.
Results indicated that pre-menopausal women with HIV had a significantly higher mean Framingham risk score vs those without HIV. However, the researchers observed no significant differences in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, HbA1c, CRP, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or total cholesterol.
The researchers also found that most women with HIV in the study did not intend to decrease their CV risk, and that their doctors did not advise them to do so.
“This study shows that the risk of developing CVD in pre-menopausal women seems to be higher from the traditional risk factors itself,” the researchers concluded. “While HIV is now independent risk factor for developing CVD in women, more focus should be on reducing the risk from traditional methods like smoking cessation, diet and life style modification, blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol and management.
—Christina Vogt
Reference:
Raza A, Malayala SV. A comparative analysis of cardiovascular risk in HIV sero-positive and sero-negative pre-menopausal women. Paper presented at: Paper presented at: IDWeek 2017; October 4-8, 2017. San Diego, CA. https://idsa.confex.com/idsa/2017/viewsessionpdf.cgi.