Coronary Artery Endothelial Function and Aging in People with HIV and HIV-Negative Individuals

Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2023 Sep 8. doi: 10.1152/ajpheart.00143.2023. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTCoronary artery disease (CAD) is a common co-morbidity in people with HIV (PWH) and impaired coronary endothelial function (CEF) plays a central role in the pathogenesis of CAD. Age-related impaired CEF among PWH, however, is not well characterized. We investigated the association between CEF and age in males and females with and without HIV using 3T magnetic resonance imaging. We measured the changes in coronary cross-sectional area (CSA) and coronary blood flow during isometric handgrip exercise, an established endothelial-dependent stressor with smaller increases in CSA and coronary blood flow indicative of impaired CEF. We included 106 PWH and 82 HIV-negative individuals. Differences in demographic and clinical characteristics between PWH and HIV-negative individuals were explored using Pearson's chi-squared test for categorical variables and Welch's t-test for continuous variables. Linear regression models were used to examine the association between CEF and age. CEF was significantly lower in PWH as compared to HIV-negative individuals. Coronary endothelial dysfunction was also present at younger ages in PWH than in the HIV-negative individuals and there were significant differences in CEF between the PWH and HIV-negative individuals across age groups. Among the HIV-negative individuals, the percent changes in CSA were inversely related to age in unadjusted and a...
Source: American Journal of Physiology. Heart and Circulatory Physiology - Category: Physiology Authors: Source Type: research