This observation is probably attributable to the impact of age in all these risk indices and to the fact that HIV-infected patients are usually young. selleck compound library This finding also supports the conclusion that different tools to address the clinical status of this patient population need to be developed. CIMT together with inflammatory and oxidative biomarkers may be useful measurements for a more precise CVD risk assessment in these patients. Carotid ultrasonography is a noninvasive

diagnostic tool that provides a direct image of the arterial wall, and is strongly related to coronary atherosclerosis. Hence, CIMT is useful in making clinical decisions regarding implementation of therapy to prevent future adverse cardiovascular events. Also, the CIMT measurement enables the effect of treatments on atherosclerosis progression/regression to be evaluated in patient

ABT-737 follow-up. Unfortunately, we have not measured CIMT in age- and gender-matched control subjects and we are therefore unable to present carotid thickness comparisons. However, a recent meta-analysis showed that CIMT in healthy populations is around 0.6–0.7 mm on average, similar to the values obtained in the present investigation in HIV-infected patients without atherosclerosis [16]. HIV-infected patients have a higher CVD risk, mainly because of lipid disturbances promoted by antiretroviral drugs, as well as the HIV infection itself. We found a higher rate of an abnormal fasting glucose, high blood pressure and lipodystrophy in the HIV-infected patients with atherosclerosis, reflecting insulin resistance associated with HIV infection and the antiretroviral many drugs used [33,34]. Paradoxically, a low BMI was associated with greater CIMT. A low BMI in HIV-infected patients is often attributable to the wasting syndrome and immune system depletion. Hence, the elevated inflammatory and oxidative activities that characterize this situation could, at least in part, explain this correlation. The results of the present

study suggest that the chronic oxidative and inflammatory status related to HIV infection may explain the discrepancy we observed between the presence of subclinical atherosclerosis and the FRS. Indeed, plasma MCP-1 concentrations were significantly increased in patients with subclinical atherosclerosis and low CVD risk estimated by the FRS and, in the multivariate analysis, both serum oxLDL and MCP-1 concentrations were associated with the presence of atherosclerosis. This finding is of particular note as these biochemical parameters can be measured relatively easily in order to improve the ability to identify at-risk individuals. In addition, the relationship between these markers and vascular lesions suggests that anti-inflammatory and antioxidant treatments could assist in the management of CVD risk in these patients. However, a caveat is that the OR for the association between these parameters and the presence of atherosclerosis was relatively small.