Risk of Myocardial Infarction in HIV Patients: A Systematic Review

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that is associated with mortality in the final stage. The advancement of antiretroviral therapy (ART) improved the life expectancy of patients with HIV. However, the long age of such patients is associated with different comorbidities such as cardiovascular diseases. Also, HIV therapy increased the concern about cardiovascular diseases. This systematic review aims to assess the risk of myocardial infarction (MI) among patients with HIV by reviewing the previous studies conducted on this subject. Research gate, Google Scholar, and PubMed databases were explored starting from 2012 till 2022. The keywords used for the searching process included "HIV, MI, AMI, Association, Correlation, and Risk." The inclusion criteria were original articles conducted on HIV patients and reported MI, written in English language, and available in full text. A total of 1,570 articles were obtained, but only seven articles met the inclusion criteria. The included studies were published between 2012 and 2019 and involved a total number of 496,600 participants; there were 266,274 who had HIV infection, with a sample size ranging from 1,147 to 252,150. The incidence of MI is higher among HIV compared to the general population. The risk factors associated with MI among HIV patients, as found in our analysis, included male gender, viral load of HIV, low CD4 count, higher CD8 count, and types of ART.