Associations between HIV serostatus and coronary artery plaque volume progression.

Objective: Men with HIV have more coronary atherosclerosis than men without HIV. We examined whether plaque progression differed based on HIV serostatus.

Design: We examined plaque progression over a median of 4.5 years (IQR 3.9-4.9) among 548 men with (n = 313) or without (n = 235) HIV from the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study using coronary CT angiography.

Methods: Change in coronary plaque volume was calculated for 1) total, 2) calcified, 3) noncalcified, and 4) low attenuation plaque and categorized by tertile. Multinomial logistic regression models estimated the association between HIV and coronary plaque progression.

Results: The median age was 53 years old and 30% were Black. Total plaque volume regressed among 2%, 20% remained without plaque, and 78% had progression with a median progression of 34 mm3 (IQR 3-106). Compared to men without HIV, men with HIV had a statistically significant 1.99 higher odds of calcified plaque progression (95%CI:1.16,3.44, p = 0.01) and elevated odds for progression in total plaque (OR1.62, 95%CI:0.94,2.77, p = 0.08) and noncalcified plaque volume (OR1.64, 95%CI:0.97,2.79, p = 0.07), although the latter findings did not meet the cutpoint for statistical significance. The progression of low attenuation plaque did not significantly differ by HIV serostatus (OR1.34, 95%CI:0.88,2.05, p = 0.18). HIV was significantly associated with the progression of total, calcified, and noncalcified plaque among nonBlack participants, but not Black participants.

Conclusions: These results suggest that men with HIV may have greater plaque progression, which may contribute to the observed higher incidence of coronary heart disease among men with HIV.