Hadil Saad

By Hadil Saad and Ntobeko A.B. Ntusi

Currently, 17 million people worldwide are receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) for human immunodeficiency viral (HIV) infection. There has been a dramatic decline in mortality from HIV infection in the last decade due to increased availability of ART. HIV-associated cardiac failure is on the increase, with more cases of diastolic dysfunction reported in the ART era. HIV increases the risk of CVD, because of longer survival on ART, ongoing subclinical inflammation, traditional cardiovascular risk factors and the complications of chronic ART use. HIV-associated CVD encompasses a wide spectrum of heterogeneous clinical entities, which include diastolic dysfunction, asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction, cardiomyopathy, myocarditis, heart failure, myocardial fibrosis, myocardial steatosis, pulmonary hypertension, peripheral arterial disease, cerebrovascular disease, infective endocarditis, coronary artery disease and cardiac neoplasms (e.g. Kaposi sarcoma and B-cell immunoblastic lymphoma). In this chapter, we review the complex association of HIV infection and CVD. We describe important recent developments and perspectives based on a systematic analysis of the important advances in this field published in the last decade.

Part of the book: Advances in HIV and AIDS Control