Contribution of antiretroviral therapy to cardiovascular disease risk in HIV-infected patients

Rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) are over twice as high in HIV-infected compared with uninfected patients, and this excess risk could be due to the effect of antiretroviral medications (ARVs) but the data regarding this are mixed. We described the literature on associations reported between classes and individual ARVs and rates of CVD and to changes in surrogate markers of subclinical CVD. Many PIs and certain NRTIs contribute to the development of CVD though recent generations of PIs appear to have less effect on development of CVD as assessed by surrogate measures of subclinical CVD. Future antiretroviral drug development efforts should include surrogate measures of subclinical cardiovascular to minimize the potential contributions of new ARVs to subclinical or clinical CVD.