April 6, 2012
HIV-infected individuals have increased arterial inflammation compared with their uninfected counterparts with the same levels of traditional cardiovascular risk factors, even when the infection is so well controlled that the virus is undetectable.
This was among the key findings of an observational study of 81 individuals who underwent fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET). Inflammation in the thoracic aorta was assessed from the target-to-background ratio of tracer uptake.