Skip to main content
  • Poster presentation
  • Open access
  • Published:

Screening for cardio-metabolic risk factors in the Romanian cohort of HIV-positive patients

Background

HIV is recognized as an independent factor related to cardiovascular (CV) disease [1]. International guidelines recommend evaluation and adjustment of common cardiovascular risk factors for all HIV-positive patients. As antiretroviral (ARV) drugs associate different profiles regarding the CV risk [2], the therapeutic regimens need to be managed on a case-by-case basis [3, 4]. The prevalence of CV disease appears to be higher in the HIV population, compared to the general population, and recent studies have demonstrated that the supplementary risk for acute myocardial infarction in HIV-infected patients is 75% [5].

Methods

We are currently performing a screening study in a cohort of HIV-infected patients to assess cardiovascular and metabolic involvement, through means of: echocardiography, intima-media thickness, Framingham score, serum lipid profile, DXA evaluation, as well as immune and virological evaluation.

Results

We present the results from a pilot project that included 100 patients from the Romanian HIV cohort. We evaluated 100 patients, with a mean age of 39.8 years old. The male-to-female ratio was 1.7:1. The mean CD4 count was 668 cells/cmm, with 5% of patients presenting CD4 cell counts below 200, 29% between 200-500 and 66% above 500 cells/cmm. The distribution of HIV-RNA was: undetectable (51%), detectable, below 1,000 copies/mL (39%), 1,000-10,000 (4%) and above 10,000 (6%). Upon serum evaluation, 49% of patients had normal cholesterol levels (below 200 mg/dL), 44% had normal triglyceride values (below 150 mg/dL), and 69% had normal glycemic values.

Conclusion

These preliminary results warrant the continuation of this pilot study, with inclusion of a higher number of patients, in order to reach the project-specified target of enrollment.

References

  1. Grunfeld C, Delaney JA, Wanke C, Currier JS, Scherzer R, Biggs ML, Tien PC, Shlipak MG, Sidney S, Polak JF, O'Leary D, Bacchetti P, Kronmal RA: Preclinical atherosclerosis due to HIV infection: carotid intima-medial thickness measurements from the FRAM study. AIDS. 2009, 23: 1841-9. 10.1097/QAD.0b013e32832d3b85.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Daglan E, Yamin D, Manu B, Streinu-Cercel A: Cardiac involvement in HIV-positive patients. GERMS. 2013, 3: 8-13. 10.11599/germs.2013.1031.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Guaraldi G: Evolving approaches and resources for clinical practice in the management of HIV infection in the HAART era. GERMS. 2011, 1: 6-8.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Errata. GERMS. 2013, 3: 67-10.11599/germs.2013.1039.

  5. Triant VA: HIV infection and coronary heart disease: an intersection of epidemics. J Infect Dis. 2012, 205 (Suppl 3): S355-61. 10.1093/infdis/jis195.

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

1) Cardio-metabolic project – Merck Sharp & Dohme.

2) POSDRU/159/1.5/S/137390.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anca Streinu-Cercel.

Rights and permissions

This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Streinu-Cercel, A., Săndulescu, O., Șchiopu, C.M. et al. Screening for cardio-metabolic risk factors in the Romanian cohort of HIV-positive patients. BMC Infect Dis 14 (Suppl 7), P61 (2014). https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1186/1471-2334-14-S7-P61

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1186/1471-2334-14-S7-P61

Keywords