Cardiovascular risk assessment in people living with HIV compared to the general population

We prospectively assessed and compared the accuracy of cardiovascular risk scores in people living with HIV (PLWH) and individuals from the general population.

The Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation Score 2 (SCORE2), the Pooled Cohort Equations (PCE), and the HIV-specific Data Collection on Adverse events of Anti-HIV Drugs (D:A:D) score were calculated in participants free from atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) between 2003 and 2009. In total, 6373 [mean age, 40.6 years (SD, 9.9)] PLWH from the Swiss HIV Cohort Study (SHCS) and 5403 [52.8 years (SD, 10.7)] individuals from the CoLaus|PsyCoLaus study were eligible for analysis. We tested discrimination and calibration, and the value of adding HIV-specific factors to scores using the net reclassification improvement (NRI). During mean follow-ups of 13.5 (SD, 4.1) in SHCS and 9.9 (SD, 2.3) years in CoLaus|PsyCoLaus study, 533 (8.4%) and 374 (6.9%) people developed an incident ASCVD, respectively. This translated into age-adjusted incidence rates of 12.9 and 7.5 per 1000 person-year, respectively. In SHCS, SCORE2, PCE, and D:A:D presented comparable discriminative capacities [area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.745 (95% confidence interval, CI, 0.723-0.767), 0.757 (95% CI, 0.736-0.777), and 0.763 (95% CI, 0.743-0.783)]. Adding HIV-specific variables (CD4 nadir and abacavir exposure) to SCORE2 and PCE resulted in an NRI of -0.1% (95% CI, -1.24 to 1, P = 0.83) and of 2.7% (95% CI, 0.3-5.1, P = 0.03), respectively.

PLWH present a two-fold higher rate of incident ASCVD compared to individuals from the general population. SCORE2 and PCE, which are clinically easier to use (reduced set of variables without adding HIV-specific factors), are valid to predict ASCVD in PLWH.