HIV drug could raise heart attack risk

From the Irish Times:
A widely used anti-HIV drug could raise heart attack risk by encouraging blood clots to form, according to a new study by Irish scientists that was unveiled at a major international conference in Canada last week.

The Dublin-based researchers showed that patients on the anti-viral drug Abacavir have stickier blood platelets – which can clump to form clots – than patients who are not taking that drug as part of their therapy.

HIV infection itself is thought to increase heart attack risk, but last year a Danish-led study of more than 30,000 HIV-infected patients found that Abacavir appeared to almost double that risk, said Dr Paddy Mallon, consultant in infectious diseases at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital and a lecturer in medicine at University College Dublin. ...more