Elevated Framingham risk score in HIV-positive patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy: results from a Norwegian study of 721 subjects

Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) may induce dyslipidemia and thus increase the risk of future cardiovascular heart disease (CHD). In this cross-sectional study performed in 2000-2001, the prevalence of a Framingham CHD risk score of >20% in HIV-positive individuals treated or not treated with HAART was compared with that in age- and gender-matched controls. The study included 721 subjects: 219 HIV-positive individuals on HAART, 64 HIV-positive, HAART-naïve individuals, and 438 age- and gender-matched controls randomly selected from a simultaneous health survey. The prevalence of a 10-year estimated CHD risk of >20% was 11.9% in patients on HAART compared to 5.3% in controls ( P=0.004). The main contributors to the increased CHD risk in patients on HAART were increased prevalence of daily smoking (54.5% vs 30.1%; P6.2 mmol/l (36.1% vs 21.7%; P