Peripheral arterial disease in HIV‐infected and uninfected women

Abstract

Although HIV infection has been associated with increased risk of subclinical atherosclerosis and cardiovascular events, peripheral arterial disease (PAD) has not been assessed in HIV-infected patients. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of, and risk factors for, PAD using ankle-brachial index (ABI) measurement in HIV-infected and uninfected women. ABI was determined for 335 participants in the Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS). A cross-sectional analysis was conducted to determine factors associated with high (>or=1.40) ABI. The prevalence of low ABI (<or=0.9) was 0.9% (n=3) and the prevalence of high ABI (>or=1.40) was 6.9% (n=23). The prevalence of low ABI was too low to allow risk factor analysis. On multivariate analysis, factors associated with high ABI were current cigarette smoking [adjusted odds ratio (OR(adj)) 2.53, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.99-6.43], being underweight (OR(adj) 11.0, 95% CI 1.61-75.63) and being overweight (OR(adj) 5.40, 95% CI 1.13-25.89). Although the prevalence of ABI <or=0.9 was low in this cohort of HIV-infected and uninfected women, the prevalence of ABI >or=1.40 was unexpectedly high. Further studies are indicated to determine the clinical significance of high ABI and its relation to the risk of cardiovascular events in HIV-infected women.