Risk of cardiovascular events associated with current exposure to HIV antiretroviral therapies in a US veteran population.

BACKGROUND To characterize the association of antiretroviral drug combinations on risk of cardiovascular events. METHODS Certain antiretroviral medications for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have been implicated in increasing risk of cardiovascular disease. However, antiretroviral drugs are typically prescribed in combination. We characterized the association of current exposure to antiretroviral drug combinations on risk of cardiovascular events including myocardial infarction, stroke, percutaneous coronary intervention, and coronary artery bypass surgery. We used the Veterans Health Administration Clinical Case Registry to analyze data from 24 510 patients infected with HIV from January 1996 through December 2009. We assessed the association of current exposure to 15 antiretroviral drugs and 23 prespecified combinations of agents on the risk of cardiovascular event by using marginal structural models and Cox models extended to accommodate time-dependent variables. RESULTS Over 164 059 person-years of follow-up, 934 patients had a cardiovascular event. Current exposure to abacavir, efavirenz, lamivudine, and zidovudine was significantly associated with increased risk of cardiovascular event, with odds ratios ranging from 1.40 to 1.53. Five combinations were significantly associated with increased risk of cardiovascular event, all of which involved lamivudine. One of these-efavirenz, lamivudine, and zidovudine-was the second most commonly used combination and was associated with a risk of cardiovascular event that is 1.60 times that of patients not currently exposed to the combination (odds ratio = 1.60, 95% confidence interval, 1.25-2.04). CONCLUSIONS In the VA cohort, exposure to both individual drugs and drug combinations was associated with modestly increased risk of a cardiovascular event.