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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >> In contrast, infected men had a 40 percent increase in their odds for heart attack after compensating for those risk factors.
"We don't why that is -- whether women have more serious metabolic changes or not," said Grinspoon, who also directs Massachusetts General Hospital's Program in Nutritional Metabolism. "Traditional risk factors may be accounting for more of the (heart attack) rates in women than in men, and there may be other things related to body composition that we couldn't factor in."
HIV-infected black patients also had higher heart attack risk than their white peers, the study found. That finding echoes trends among non-HIV-infected heart patients.
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Could HIV infection, on its own, raise heart risks? The experts aren't sure.
"HIV is a virus, so (infection) is an inflammatory state," Grinspoon said. Chronic inflammation has recently been linked to cardiovascular disease, so "one hypothesis would be that these patients have a pro-inflammatory condition," he said.
Of course, most of the patients in the study were also taking the powerful cocktail of HIV-suppressing drugs collectively known as "highly active antiretroviral therapy" (HAART).
On the one hand, "HAART suppresses inflammation, which can improve cardiovascular parameters," Grinspoon noted. "But, on the other hand, treatment with HAART also leads to worsening changes in body composition and has even more adverse effects on (blood) glucose, lipids, etcetera. So, it's a mixed bag."
Other factors may also boost heart risk for people with HIV, Johnston added.
She noted that study participants who were infected with HIV tended to smoke more, which isn't surprising given the stresses of living with the virus. Smoking remains a major risk factor for heart disease.
Johnston emphasized that the findings should not make patients wary of taking their medications.
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