Background: HIV-infected persons develop coronary artery disease (CAD) more commonly and earlier than uninfected persons; however, the role of non-invasive testing to stratify CAD risk in HIV is not well defined.
Methods and results: Patients were selected from a single-center electronic cohort of HIV-infected patients and uninfected controls matched 1:2 on age, sex, race, and type of cardiovascular testing performed. Patients with abnormal echocardiographic or nuclear stress testing who subsequently underwent coronary angiography were included. Logistic regressions were used to assess differences by HIV serostatus in two co-primary endpoints: (1) severe CAD (≥70% stenosis of at least one coronary artery) and (2) performance of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). HIV-infected patients (N = 189) were significantly more likely to undergo PCI following abnormal stress test when compared with uninfected persons (N = 319) after adjustment for demographics, CAD risk factors, previous coronary intervention, and stress test type (OR 1.85, 95% CI 1.12-3.04, P = 0.003). No associations between HIV serostatus and CAD were statistically significant, although there was a non-significant trend toward greater CAD for HIV-infected patients.
Conclusions: HIV-infected patients with abnormal cardiovascular stress testing who underwent subsequent coronary angiography did not have a significantly greater CAD burden than uninfected controls, but were significantly more likely to receive PCI.
Keywords: HIV; cardiovascular disease; chronic co-morbid illnesses in HIV infection; chronic complications of HIV; coronary artery disease; non-invasive cardiovascular testing.