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Vitamin D deficiency is associated with development of subclinical coronary artery disease in HIV-infected African American cocaine users with low Framingham-defined cardiovascular risk

Authors Lai H, Fishman EK, Gerstenblith G, Moore R, Brinker JA, Keruly JC, Chen S, Detrick B, Lai S

Received 26 June 2013

Accepted for publication 12 August 2013

Published 15 November 2013 Volume 2013:9 Pages 729—737

DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/VHRM.S50537

Checked for plagiarism Yes

Review by Single anonymous peer review

Peer reviewer comments 4



Hong Lai,1 Elliot K Fishman,1 Gary Gerstenblith,2 Richard Moore,2 Jeffrey A Brinker,2 Jeanne C Keruly,2 Shaoguang Chen,3 Barbara Detrick,3 Shenghan Lai1–3

1Department of Radiology, 2Department of Medicine, 3Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

Abstract: Chronic cocaine use may lead to premature atherosclerosis, but the prevalence of and risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD) in asymptomatic cocaine users have not been reported. The objective of this study was to examine whether vitamin D deficiency is associated with the development of CAD in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected African American cocaine users with low CAD risk.
Methods: In this prospective follow-up study, we investigated 169 HIV-infected African American cocaine users with low Framingham risk at baseline. The main outcome measures were incidence of subclinical CAD and development of subclinical CAD.
Results: Fifty of the 169 African Americans had evidence of subclinical disease on the initial cardiac computed tomography. A second cardiac computed tomography was performed on the 119 African Americans without disease on the first scan. The total sum of person-years of follow-up was 289.6. Subclinical CAD was detected in 11 of these, yielding an overall incidence of 3.80/100 person-years (95% confidence interval 1.90–6.80). Among the factors investigated, only vitamin D deficiency was independently associated with development of subclinical CAD. The study did not find significant associations between CD4 count, HIV viral load, or antiretroviral treatment use and the incidence of subclinical CAD. This study appears to suggest that there is a threshold level of vitamin D (10 ng/mL) above which the effect of vitamin D on subclinical CAD is diminished.
Conclusion: The incidence of subclinical CAD in HIV-infected African American cocaine users with low CAD risk is high, especially in those with vitamin D deficiency. Well designed randomized clinical trials are warranted to confirm the role of vitamin D deficiency in the development of CAD in HIV-infected African American cocaine users with low CAD risk.

Keywords: vitamin D deficiency, subclinical coronary artery disease, cocaine use, prospective follow-up study, African Americans

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