ATLANTA, Nov 10: HIV patients who take strong cocktails of drugs may be keeping themselves free of AIDS, but they may be running the more longterm risk of heart disease, researchers said on Tuesday, reports Reuters.

They said they found more evidence that protease inhibitors. the drugs credited with making the cocktails work against the virus, cause changes that can lead to heart disease.

"Patients are clearly getting tremendous benefits from the use of HIV protease Inhibitors, but (heart disease) appears to be a significant side-effect to that benefit." Dr. James Sosman of the University of Wisconsin, who worked on the study, said in a statement.

The researchers told a meeting of the American Heart Association that they found evidence the drugs were affecting the lining of the blood vessels, called the endothelium.

Doctors had feared there might be side-effects of protease inhibitors — besides the nausea. diarrhoea and other immediate side-effects — when some patients started complaining of strange fat deposits.

They got nicknames such as "portease paunch and "buffalo hump' because of their odd distribution.

Tests showed some patients using the protease inhibitors had unusual blood sugar and blood cholesterol levels, and some gained weight.

Sosman's team used ultrasound to image blood flow in the arteries of21 HIV patients taking protease inhibitors, and compared them to seven patients who did not take the drugs.

They found suggestions that the endothelial linings of the protease patients were not working properly, as compared to the seven not taking the drugs.