Background and objective: It is not known whether human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients present, compared to non-HIV controls, higher vascular risk factors. Our objective was to analyze whether there are differences in blood pressure in HIV patients compared to non-HIV controls.
Patients and method: We retrospectively analyzed all HIV patients controlled in our centre, who were compared with a control group of blood donors, matched for age and sex, blood pressure and lipid profile. We evaluated the following variables: demographic data, date of HIV diagnosis, presence of lipodystrophy, antiretroviral treatment, duration of this treatment, and vascular risk factors.
Results: We evaluated 740 patients (mean age: 41.8 years; 75% men). We detected a higher prevalence of hypertension in the HIV group (25% vs. 15%) with a significant difference in the mean systolic/diastolic blood pressure between both groups (p < 0.0001). In the HIV group, hypertensives were older than normotensives, and had higher prevalence of lipodystrophy and higher total cholesterol with a shorter disease duration (75 vs 85 months). In the total group of hypertensives, HIV patients were younger than non-HIV (44.2 vs 47.9 years; p < 0.009) and had higher total cholesterol values (5.44 vs 5.18 mmol/l; p < 0.052).
Conclusions: We found a higher prevalence of hypertension in HIV patients compared with matched controls, as well as a higher prevalence of lipodystrophy and vascular risk factors in hypertensive HIV patients compared with non-hypertensive.