Background An estimate of the risk of suffering a cardiovascular event guides the development of preventive strategies and treatment optimization. In HIV and co-infected HIV/HCV patients the state of chronic inflammation, altered endothelial function, a higher prevalence of smoking and antiretroviral treatment toxicity tend to increase the risk compared to the non-infected population.

Purpose To estimate the cardiovascular risk of HIV infected patients, HCV/HIV patients, and those treated with lopinavir/ritonavir or abacavir in a hospital. To describe the population and their main risk factors.

Materials and Methods This was a 6-month retrospective and observational study. Demographic and clinical data, such as lipid profile, immunological state or current treatments, were collected. Three different tools were used to estimate the 10-year cardiovascular risk: Framingham, SCORE and Regicor, in order to minimise the possible under-estimation for the infected Spanish population.

Results 56 patients matched the inclusion criteria. The average age was 48 (78.6% men). All patients had a good immunological state. The first modifiable risk factor was smoking (66.1%) dyslipidaemia the second (50%) and hypertension the third (37.5%). The co-infected population presented the main risk factors in higher percentages than the mono-infected group (81.3% smoked and 90% had dyslipidaemia). The number of patients identified as having a high cardiovascular risk with the estimation methods used was low. Framingham was the tool that classified more patients into this group (18.5% versus 12.73% SCORE and 1.85% Regicor).

Conclusions The results of this study, which accorded with previous publications, show the high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in this population, especially smoking and dyslipidaemia, showing the importance of identifying high-risk patients in order to prevent cardiovascular events. It also evidences the lack of a specific way of identifying these patients, which would help direct preventative efforts.

No conflict of interest.