Cardiovascular disease and therapeutic drug-related cardiovascular consequences in HIV-infected patients

Abstract

The incidence of cardiovascular disease is greatly increased in the HIV-infected population compared with people of the same age without HIV. Cardiovascular manifestations of HIV/AIDS include, but are not limited to, accelerated atherosclerosis, pulmonary arterial hypertension, vasculitis, myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, pericardial diseases, malignancy (myocardial Kaposi sarcoma and B-cell immunoblastic lymphoma), and endocarditis. Drug effects and interactions that challenge the cardiovascular system are even more prevalent in this population, and careful review and surveillance of medication effects is crucial as is careful selection of highly active antiretroviral therapy. A focused assessment and understanding of disease prevalence and presentation is needed as symptoms may be non-specific and cardiovascular physical examination findings indeterminate due to co-morbid conditions in the patient population now living with chronic HIV infection.