Insulin resistance predicts endothelial dysfunction and cardiovascular risk in HIV-infected persons on long-term highly active antiretroviral therapy.

Objective: Cardiovascular disease risk among persons with HIV is likely multifactorial, thus testing a variety of available noninvasive vascular ultrasound and other surrogate tests may yield differing results. To address this issue, we assessed multiple metabolic and clinical predictors of endothelial function and carotid intima-media thickness in HIV-infected subjects and compared results with HIV-negative controls.

Design: Prospective, cross-sectional study of 50 HIV-infected, healthy adults on stable highly active antiretroviral therapy matched to 50 HIV-negative controls by age, sex, race, and body mass index.