Individuals with HIV and increased gut/immune activation have a greater risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) compared with individuals with relatively low inflammation, according to results published in AIDS. Caroline Sabin, PhD, and colleagues examined 31 biomarkers and identified distinct inflammatory profiles: gut/ immune activation, neurovascular, and reference,
or relatively low inflammation. Among 312 participants (70% living with HIV; median age, 55; 82% male), 146 were in the gut/immune activation group, 36 were in the neurovascular group, and 130 were in the reference group. The median QRISK scores were 9.3% for people with HIV and 10.2% for people without HIV, with similar scores observed with the Framingham Risk Score and the Data Collection on Adverse effects of anti-HIV Drugs, or DAD, algorithm. The researchers reported statistically significant
differences in the distributions of scores in the three clusters among people with HIV. Median QRISK scores were higher for those in the gut/immune activation and neurovascular groups (5.8% and 3.1%, respectively) compared with those in the reference group. “Our findings highlight that clinically important inflammatory subgroups could be useful to differentiate risk and [maximize] prediction of CVD among people with HIV,” Dr. Sabin and colleagues wrote.
