Physical capacity, body composition and immune-inflammatory markers are associated with risk of cardiovascular disease in sedentary people living with HIV.

Abstract

People living with HIV (PLHIV) are experiencing a high level of non-HIV-related disease mainly related to cardiovascular system however the factors associated with this scenario are widely discussed and indefinite so far. The purpose was to investigate the association of physical capacities, body composition, and immune-inflammatory markers with the Framingham risk score (FRS) in PLHIV. Volunteers were recruited and data on age, the time of HIV infection diagnosis and the time of HAART use were collected. The volunteers performed upper limb strength (ULS), lower limb strength (LLS) and cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2peak) tests, body composition evaluation, and blood collection to immune-inflammatory marker markers and the FRS was calculated. Partial age- and sex-adjusted correlation was used to verify associations between factors and multiple linear regression analysis was performed to identify an independent association of FRS and the variables. 113 PLHIV met the eligible criteria and were observed a negative correlation between CD4+ (r=-0.615), time of HIV infection diagnosis (r=-0.237), time of HAART use (r=-0.239), ULS (r=-0.274), LLS (r=-0.213), and VO<inf>2</inf>peak (r=-0.207) with FRS. There was a positive correlation between fibrinogen and FRS (r=0.363; P<0.001). The TCD4+ count cells were significantly associated with FRS (P=0.001). Environmental and biological HIV-related factors are inversely associated with FRS while immune-inflammation markers have a positive association.