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Several large studies have suggested an increased cardiovascular risk from long-term use of antiretroviral therapy, but few researchers have attempted to establish the independence of this association from the burgeoning epidemic of obesity-related cardiovascular illness in the U.S. To address this question, investigators compared the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome in HIV-infected and -uninfected populations.
The metabolic syndrome was diagnosed in 120 (25%) of 471 HIV-infected patients who attended a single Midwestern urban clinic in 2005 and had complete clinical and laboratory information available. Independent predictors of metabolic syndrome in multivariate analysis were older age, higher CD4-cell count, white race, and higher BMI…