Coronary Plaque, Inflammation, Subclinical Myocardial Injury, and Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events in the REPRIEVE Substudy.
BACKGROUND: In REPRIEVE (Randomized Trial to Prevent Vascular Events in HIV), pitavastatin prevented major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and reduced noncalcified coronary plaque (NCP) among people with HIV and low-to-moderate traditional cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship of coronary plaque, inflammation, and subclinical myocardial injury with MACE. METHODS: A total of 804 REPRIEVE Mechanistic Substudy participants enrolled from April 2015 to February 2018 at 31 U.S. sites, randomized to pitavastatin 4 mg/day or placebo, and followed for incident MACE (median 6.2 years [Q1-Q3 5.4-7.1]), were assessed for relationships of baseline NCP, markers of inflammation (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein [hs-CRP], interleukin (IL)-6, oxidized low-density lipoprotein, and lipoproprotein-associated phospholipase A2), and subclinical myocardial injury (high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T [hs-cTnT]) with MACE. RESULTS: Among enrolled participants (17% female [139/804], 47% non-White [379/804], median age 51 years, median low-density lipoprotein 105 mg/dL, 10-year atherosclerotic CVD [ASCVD] risk 4.6%, 40% [299/755] with noncalcified plaque), MACE incidence was 7.26/1,000 (95% CI: 4.51-11.7) person-years (17 events) for pitavastatin and 9.15/1,000 person-years (95% CI: 5.97-14.0) (21 events) for placebo. The hazard of MACE was greater in those with (vs without) noncalcified plaque (HR: 2.5; [95% CI: 1.3-4.8]; P = 0.008), with higher levels of hs-CRP (P = 0.049), IL-6 (P = 0.033), and hs-cTnT (P = 0.003) at study entry, persisting after ASCVD risk adjustment. In exploratory prediction modeling, adding hs-CRP, IL-6, and hs-cTnT to ASCVD risk increased the integrated area under the curve to 0.72 and C-statistic to 0.73 (0.62-0.84) vs 0.58 and 0.56 (0.45-0.67) compared to ASCVD risk alone. CONCLUSIONS: NCP and higher hs-CRP, IL-6, and hs-cTnT were associated with MACE and improved risk prediction over traditional risk factors in people with HIV without cardiac symptoms and low-to-moderate ASCVD risk. (Evaluating the Use of Pitavastatin to Reduce the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in HIV-Infected Adults [REPRIEVE]; NCT02344290).
