Novel Methods By Hong Kong To Screen HIV Patients Heart Risk

178

Although there happen to be existing calculators that predict the coronary artery disease risk in any individual, the fact is that they are often not accurate since they fail to take into account many host attributes such as ethnicity or any underlying medical conditions like HIV.

It is well to be noted that the Faculty of Medicine from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Centre for Clinical Research and Biostatistics, and the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics have all examined and evaluated the effectiveness when it comes to a single tool, and that’s Automatic Retinal Image Analysis- ARIA technology, so as to assess cardiovascular risk in people who happen to be suffering from HIV.

The results have gone on to show that model that incorporates both retinal attributes as well as traditional cardiovascular risk elements carries with it sensitivity as well as specificity of more than 90% when it comes to assessing the coronary atherosclerosis and obstructive coronary artery disease’s existence.

The fact is that people living with HIV have twice the risk of developing cardiovascular conditions as compared to healthy individuals. They also happen to be having higher prevalence when it comes to diabetes and hypertension, that in turn contributes to the risk of getting cardiovascular diseases.

Although interventions happen to be available as far as reducing the risk of coronary artery disease is concerned in at-risk individuals, a simple and accurate tool is the prime requirement to pinpoint the individual risk of the condition.