Cardiovascular Complications of HIV-Associated Immune Dysfunction

Figure 1

Nontraditional risk factors for cardiovascular diseases in human immunodeficiency virus- (HIV-) infected patients. HIV infection is associated with consumption of CD4⁺ T-cells due to viral replication as indicated by increased viral RNA load (left panel). Subsequently, the increased production of inflammatory mediators such as interleukin-6 (IL-6) indicates a status of dysregulated immune response which precipitates cardiovascular pathology (right panel).