Exercise ECG for coronary artery disease screening in people living with HIV

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the leading causes of death among people living with HIV (PLWH). We evaluated ECG stress testing (EST) for detecting CAD in PLWH with multiple cardiovascular risk factors. METHODS: CORDIS was a cross-sectional study conducted in PLWH. Inclusion criteria were men at least 50 years or postmenopausal women, HIV-1 RNA less than 50 copies/ml and at least one of the following cardiovascular risk factor: familial history of CAD, smoking, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia or diabetes. Patients with a previous diagnosis of CAD or with cardiac symptoms were excluded. EST was performed concomitantly with bilateral carotid color-Doppler ultrasonography (CDU) and evaluated by a cardiologist. Results were described by median (interquartile range) or frequency (%). Logistic regression was applied to evaluate predictive factors of inducible myocardial ischemia (IMI). RESULTS: EST and CDU were performed in 309 individuals; IMI prevalence was 7.4% [95% confidence interval (CI): 5.0-11.0%]. Among patients with a normal CDU, no cases of IMI were observed. In people with abnormal CDU, IMI prevalence increased accordingly with the atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk score: 10.2%, 16.9%, 19.7%, 27.8% and 30.4% among individuals with ASCVD score 7.5% or less, more than 7.5%, more than 10%, more than 15% and more than 20%, respectively (P for trend: 0.02). At multivariate analysis, ASCVD risk score was associated with EST suggestive of IMI (adjusted odds ratio for 1% increase = 1.08; 95% CI: 1.02-1.13, P = 0.005) and with confirmed IMI (adjusted odds ratio for 1% increase = 1.11; 95% CI: 1.04-1.19, P = 0.003). CONCLUSION: Prevalence of IMI was 7.4% in the CORDIS study. We suggest EST as first-line screening for CAD in PLWH without cardiac symptoms, with an abnormal CDU and a high ASCVD risk score.