Kidney Disease and Cardiovascular Events in HIV-Infected Patients

Cardiovascular events (CVEs) account for a growing proportion of deaths in HIV-infected patients. In HIV-uninfected populations, renal dysfunction has been associated with increased risk for CVEs. Does the same link hold true for HIV-infected individuals? To find out, investigators conducted a nested case-control study involving 315 HIV-infected participants in the Johns Hopkins Clinical Cohort — 63 patients with CVEs between 1998 and 2008 and 252 sex-, race-, and age-matched controls without CVEs.

The mean serum creatinine level was significantly higher in cases than in controls (2.4 vs. 1.1 mg/dL). In an analysis adjusted for other cardiovascular risk factors, the odds of a CVE were 6.4 times higher with an estimated glomerular filtration …