Nucleoside Analogues and MI Risk

Recent findings from the DAD study — a prospective, observational collaboration involving HIV-infected patients from Europe, the U.S., and Australia — have associated protease inhibitors with increased risk for MI (Journal Watch Cardiology May 16 2007). To explore whether nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) independently increase the risk for MI, investigators analyzed data on 33,347 DAD participants. They examined the relations between recent (current or within the preceding 6 months) and past use of zidovudine, didanosine, stavudine, lamivudine, and abacavir with incident MI. Associations were adjusted for cardiovascular risk factors that are unaffected by NRTI therapy, cohort, calendar year, or use of other antiretroviral…