People with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are at a higher risk of suffering from heart failure than people without HIV, according to a new study. HIV is a virus that attacks the body’s immune system and ability to fight infections and it can lead to AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) if not treated on time. The study has been published in a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings on December 13. The study is one of the largest researches to know the level of heart failure risk in people with HIV. The study also focused on how heart failure risk varies by age, gender, race and ethnicity.
Senior author of the report Michael J Silverberg, a research scientist and HIV epidemiologist at the US-based Kaiser Permanente Division of Research said, “In the new study, we looked at the hearts of HIV patients and non-HIV patients. We also studied the risk of heart failure among people of different ages, gender, race and ethnicity.”
According to Silverberg, scientists analysed cardiovascular impacts upto the end stage conditions like heart failure for people with HIV .
During their research, Silverberg and his colleagues identified over 38,800 people with HIV who were Kaiser Permanente members between 2000 and 2016. The participants belonged to three regions— Northern California, Southern California and the Mid-Atlantic States. Later, scientists matched each HIV positive person with upto 10 Kaiser Permanente members from their corresponding region of the same age, gender and race, who did not have HIV.
In the end, they identified the people in both groups who had developed heart failure during follow-up.
After rigorous research, the study found that people with HIV were 68 percent more prone to develop heart failure than people who did not have HIV. The study also found that people who were age 40 or younger, female or of Asian or Pacific Islander ethnicity were at the highest risk among all the population.
The preliminary data of the study also suggests that HIV may have a greater impact on women’s cardiac function than it does in men. It is due to hormonal regulation and enhanced myocardial fibrosis.
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