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Scientists, HIV Advocates Call for Better Methods to Evaluate the Increased Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in Persons with HIV  

At the same time that medical science has nearly eliminated AIDS deaths in patients treated for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), two international meetings of HIV/AIDS scientists and patient advocates find major shortcomings in the design and analysis of studies used to assess cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in people with HIV with significant implications for improving medical care.

Among the deficiencies cited are inconsistent standards for data analyses, lack of transparency in publishing research findings and often conflicting data about the nature and extent of increased CVD risk in HIV patients.

The meetings, convened in Washington and Vienna by the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research, produced an in-depth assessment of the state of research on CVD risk in the HIV population and offered an action plan for improving how studies assessing CVD risk are conducted, analyzed and published. . . .

"For now, every HIV patient should be considered at risk for cardiovascular disease," said Dr. Jur Strobos, deputy director of the Forum. "We must focus on controlling traditional risk factors, such as smoking, excess weight, hypertension, diabetes, illicit drug use and high blood cholesterol levels. Of key concern is reducing the high prevalence of smoking in people with HIV, which some studies estimate is as high as 50 percent in the HIV patient population."

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