Low prevalence of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level < 1 mmol/L in non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase...

Our objective was to compare the prevalence of high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-c) level < 1 mmol/L in non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) and protease inhibitor (PI) recipients in an unselected HIV-positive population. All HIV-positive patients living in Oslo who attended our outpatient clinic from April 1, 2000 to April 1, 2001 were invited to a study of cardiovascular risk factors. In this substudy, 40 NNRTI recipients and 124 PI recipients were included. Prevalence of HDL-c <1 mmol/L was 7.5% in the NNRTI recipients compared with 35.5% in the PI recipients (P <0.001). In the multivariate analyses, use of NNRTI was a significant protective factor (odds ratio [OR] 0.17; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.05-0.66; P = 0.01) and elevated triglycerides a significant risk factor (OR 3.40; 95% CI 1.47-7.86; P = 0.004) for low HDL-c level. Our study shows that NNRTI recipients have a more favourable HDL-c profile than PI recipients, even when possible confounding factors are taken into account.