Why the study?
As life expectancy in people living with HIV increases with antiretroviral treatment, their risk for vascular co-morbidities and early vascular ageing increases, but whether HIV relates to vascular structure and function across age groups remained unclear.
Does HIV infection affect vascular structure and function in black South African adults?
Does HIV infection affect vascular structure and function in black South African adults?
HIV infection was not associated with adverse measures of vascular structure or function in black South African adults, suggesting it does not contribute to early vascular aging in this population.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
HIV status unlinked to vascular measures here; leaves open longitudinal confirmation of EVA risk in PLWH.
Background: As the life expectancy of people living with the HIV increases because of antiretroviral treatment (ART), their risk for vascular co-morbidities and early vascular ageing (EVA) also increases. Objective: We aimed to investigate whether HIV infection relates to vascular structure and function in black South African adults and whether this relationship is age dependent. Method: This cross-sectional study carried out in urban and rural areas of North West province, South Africa, included 572 age- and sex-matched people living with HIV (PLWH) and without HIV. Participants from the EndoAfrica study and PURE study were stratified according to tertiles of age. Measures of vascular structure (carotid intima-media thickness) and function (carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity, central systolic blood pressure, central pulse pressure and pulse pressure amplification) were determined. In multivariate linear regression analyses, vascular measures were not associated with a HIV- positive status in either the total or any of the age groups. Conclusion: Black South Africans living with HIV have a less adverse blood pressure profile than their counterparts without HIV. The HIV-positive status was not associated with measures of vascular structure or function in any age group. The results suggest that HIV does not contribute to EVA in this population; however, further longitudinal investigation is warranted.
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Louwrens et al. (2022) studied this question.
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