Antiretroviral therapy increases risk of heart attack

Heart attack or rhabdomyolysis?

 Statins are commonly used drugs in the treatment of hyperlipidemia (HL), despite some undesirable side effects. These range from mild symptoms such as myopathy, muscle weakness and myalgia to severe muscle weakness associated with chronic myopathy and acute renal failure (ARF) as a result of rhabdomyolysis. The most serious and deadly side effect of statins is rhabdomyolysis. The case presente...

Putting heart attack risk into perspective

In the 1980s, people in high-income countries who became HIV positive had about 10 years before succumbing to dreadful AIDS-related infections and eventual death. But in 1996, HAART became available and the spectre of many AIDS-related deaths gradually receded. Today, HIV positive people who have minimal co-existing health conditions and who are engaged in their care and treatment will likely h...

Heart attack: what is your risk?

Am I likely to have a heart attack? Several things can increase your risk of a heart attack. Some things, such as your age and sex, cannot be changed. But others, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol, can be treated. Major risk factors for CHD include diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, male sex, older age, smoking, and a father who had a heart attack before 55 years of...

Calcium Supplements & Heart Attack Risk Demystified

HIV Infection, Antiretroviral Therapy and Cardiovascular Risk

In the last 15 years, highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has determined a dramatic reduction of both morbidity and mortality in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected subjects, transforming this infection in a chronic and manageable disease. Patients surviving with HIV in the developed world, in larger number men, are becoming aged. As it would be expected for a population of com...