Myocardial Infarction, Stroke, and Mortality in cART-Treated HIV Patients on Statins

AIDS Patient Care STDS. 2015 Jun;29(6):307-13. doi: 10.1089/apc.2014.0309. Epub 2015 Apr 9.

Abstract

Despite combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), people living with HIV (PLWH) continue to have more systemic inflammation and metabolic disturbances than the general population. These risk factors for atherosclerosis and organ dysfunction may be ameliorated by statins. We retrospectively analyzed 438 cART treated PLWH from the Nutrition For Healthy Living (NFHL) cohort to determine the association between statins and myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and all-cause mortality as a composite. We used Cox proportional hazards regression as our main analysis. The average age was 44 years, 32% were women, and 67 of the 438 subjects used statins. There was no association between statins and our composite endpoint in two separate models [1.26 (0.57-2.79) in statin history model and 0.93 (0.65-1.32) per year in statin duration model]. The composite outcome was significantly associated with CD4 count, age, and smoking status in both models. CD4 count remained significant even after exclusion of mortality from the composite (HR=0.88, p=0.02). Confounding control via propensity scoring and multiple imputations did not change the results. Statins did not have an effect on MI, stroke, and mortality. Interestingly, CD4 count appears to be an important predictor of these outcomes, even after exclusion of death from the composite.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active*
  • CD4 Lymphocyte Count
  • Cause of Death
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • HIV Infections / drug therapy*
  • HIV Infections / mortality
  • Humans
  • Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors / therapeutic use
  • Incidence
  • Male
  • Myocardial Infarction / drug therapy
  • Myocardial Infarction / epidemiology*
  • Myocardial Infarction / mortality
  • Proportional Hazards Models
  • Prospective Studies
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Risk Factors
  • Stroke / drug therapy
  • Stroke / epidemiology*
  • Stroke / mortality
  • Treatment Outcome

Substances

  • Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors