A recent study among HIV patients has found that an genetic background of heart disease seems to have more affect on the likelihood of developing coronary artery disease than other risk factors such as high cholesterol. It has also been shown that the anti-retrovirus drugs used to treat HIV patients will increase the likelihood that HIV patients will develop coronary artery disease.
According to the study genetics and anti-retroviral drugs are both just as likely to cause coronary artery disease. This information is very important to the treatment of HIV patients. The researchers believe that doctors should be collecting genetic on HIV patients in order to correctly determine the likelihood that the patient will develop coronary artery disease.
It is important to note that recent studies have found that HIV is linked to the development of heart disease. It is thought that this may be due to the inflammatory effects of the disease. However, the side effect from anti-retrovirus drugs has also been shown to be a major contribution.
The researchers believe that HIV patients must be closely monitored due to the anti-retrovirus drugs. However, they believe that in HIV patients who also have genetic history it may be appropriate to use more aggressive treatments before the coronary artery disease even develops.
Genetics have also been shown to play a large role in patients without HIV as well. Do you think it is okay to treat a disease before it has developed as the researchers in this study would like to do?
Original Article- http://www.aidsmap.com/Genetics-make-a-large-contribution-to-cardiovascular-risk-for-people-with-HIV/page/2635767/
Genetics in Heart Disease- http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-12-22-cardiac-genetic-link_x.htm
This scares me a little bit! I have always been really healthy but I do have heart disease in my family. Hopefully I can slip past it! Also, I really think it is disappointing that medicine to treat one disease can cause another one to develop. It has always been something that upset me because my dad takes a lot of medicine that he needs for one aspect but it has side affects that have a negative impact on other things. This was a really cool post that I enjoyed reading.
ReplyDelete