HIV as a Risk Factor for Sudden Cardiac Death

Persons with HIV (PWH) have excess risk for cardiovascular disease as well as electrophysiological alterations that may underlie sudden cardiac death (SCD; NEJM JW Infect Dis Jun 2020 and Circulation 2019 Nov 11; [e-pub]). In a recent study, SCD occurred twice as often in PWH, but one in three deaths were actually due to overdose (NEJM JW Infect Dis Jul 2021 and N Engl J Med 2021 Jun 17). Now, investigators used data from the Veterans Aging Cohort Study (VACS) to examine the association between HIV and SCD. Among >144,000 VACS participants (median age, 50), 30% were PWH (median baseline CD4 count, 385 cells/µL). Veterans without HIV had higher prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, elevated LDL cholesterol, obesity, alcohol use, COPD, and ca…