Ischemic Heart Disease in HIV: An In-depth Look at Cardiovascular Risk.

Although the incidence of cardiovascular diseases classically associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has decreased considerably with antiretroviral therapy, cardiovascular risk, and especially ischemic heart disease, are higher in HIV-infected patients than in uninfected individuals. This is due to the interaction of patient-dependent factors with virus-dependent factors, as well as factors associated with antiretroviral therapy. With increasing of life expectancy and the chronicity of HIV infection, cardiovascular disease has emerged as an important cause of morbidity and mortality in HIV patients. In developed countries, the most common cardiovascular manifestation of HIV is ischemic heart disease. Currently, it is not uncommon to find HIV patients with acute coronary syndrome and, given the important pharmacokinetic interactions of antiretroviral drugs, it is important to know which cardiovascular treatments are safe in this group of patients. The ideal approach would be to mitigate the cardiovascular risk in HIV patients with specific primary prevention measures. All these issues are discussed in this review, which aims to aid clinical cardiologists faced with HIV patients with ischemic heart disease or with high cardiovascular risk in daily clinical practice.