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CARDIOVASCULAR JOURNAL OF AFRICA • Volume 29, No 3, May/June 2018
158
AFRICA
to an NNRTI (73%) or protease inhibitor (PI) (26%), each
participant ART regimen also contained Tenofovir/Lamivudine
(49%), Zidovudine/Lamivudine (47%), Abacavir/Lamivudine
(2%) or Lamivudine (2%) (data not shown in table). Table 1
provides baseline characteristics including CVD risk factors.
Among the biomarkers of endothelial dysfunction
in unadjusted analysis, only VCAM-1 was elevated among
HIV-infected participants when compared to HIV-uninfected
Log sCD163 by HIV status
p
=
0.42
HIV-uninfected controls
HIV-infected on ART
Log sCD163 (log ng/ml)
10
8
6
4
IL-6 by HIV status
p
=
0.10
HIV-uninfected controls
HIV-infected on ART
IL-6 (ng/ml)
40
30
20
10
0
Log VCAM-1 by HIV status
p
<
0.01
HIV-uninfected controls
HIV-infected on ART
Log VCAM-1 (log ng/ml)
8.0
7.5
7.0
6.5
6.0
5.5
5.0
I-CAM by HIV status
p
=
0.09
HIV-uninfected controls
HIV-infected on ART
I-CAM (ng/ml)
800
600
400
200
E-selection by HIV status
p
=
0.09
HIV-uninfected controls
HIV-infected on ART
125
100
75
50
25
E-selection (ng/ml)
cIMT by HIV status
p
=
0.52
HIV-uninfected controls
HIV-infected on ART
Mean cIMT (ng/ml)
1.0
0.8
0. 6
0. 4
Fig. 1.
Comparison of biomarkers and cIMT between the study groups. The horizontal bars of the whiskers represent the 10th and
90th percentile, while the upper and lower boundaries of the boxes represent the first and third quartiles. All comparisons
are between HIV-infected patients on ART and HIV-uninfected controls. From left to right for each pair of box plots, the top
depicts sCD163 (ng/ml) and IL-6 (ng/ml), the middle depicts log VCAM-1 (ng/ml) and ICAM-1 (ng/ml), and the bottom depicts
E-selectin (ng/ml) and cIMT (mm). VCAM-1, vascular cell adhesion molecule; ICAM-1, intercellular adhesion molecule; cIMT,
carotid intima–media thickness.