Is Abacavir Therapy Associated with Increased Risk for MI?

The presentation and publication of the DAD study earlier this year, linking abacavir (and ddI) to an increased risk for cardiovascular events (AIDS Clin Care Apr 14 2008), sparked a major controversy that continued at this year’s International AIDS Conference.

In the late-breaker session, Jens Lundgren, who is the lead investigator for the DAD study, presented new data from the SMART study showing an association between abacavir use and cardiovascular events [Abstract THAB0305]. The added component to this analysis was an evaluation of baseline inflammatory biomarkers, some of which (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and interleukin-6) were significantly elevated in abacavir-treated patients, supporting a pro-inflammatory mechanism for in…