The various cardiovascular diseases observed in HIV-infected patients and wide­ly described in the literature have been pre­dominantly coronary and peripheral arterial diseases (PAD) and remain poorly known.

Classically, PAD is expressed as two forms: atherosclerosis, defined as an atheromatous inflammatory disease, and vasculitic syn­dromes, known as non-atheromatous inflam­matory diseases. The prevalence and severi­ty of peripheral arterial atherosclerosis in HIV-infected patients remain, at the moment, poorly known mostly because study protocols failed to require that it and coro­nary arterial disease be dissociated. Several cases of vasculitic syndromes have been reported such as pseudonecrotizing polyangiitis, Kawasaki’s syndrome, Behςet^,s disease, Henoch-Schonlein purpura, and essential mixed cryoglobulinemia in patients co-infected with HIV and hepatitis C virus, but they remain extremely rare.