Women with (n = 18) and without (n = 6) HIV were matched according to age, body mass index (BMI), history of hypertension, and smoking status, said Dr. Toribio. For women with HIV, they had to be on stable antiretroviral therapy for at least 3 months and have no interruption in therapy greater than 2 weeks over the 3 months preceding enrollment.
The study excluded women who had known preexisting heart failure, diabetes, or atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Participants also could not be taking lipid-lowering agents or anti-inflammatory medications.
Participants were about 52 years old on average, and had a mean BMI of a little over 30 kg/m2. Lipid values did not differ significantly between groups, except that triglycerides were a mean 107 mg/dL in women living with HIV, compared with 69 mg/dL for women without HIV (P = .01).
Of the women living with HIV, 7/18 (38.5%) were white, the same number were black, and 2 were Hispanic. Three of six women without HIV were white, two were black, and one was Hispanic; racial and ethnic differences between the groups were not statistically significant overall.