Ethical considerations
The current study is a secondary analysis of data collected in healthy
controls in the HIV associated ascending aortic aneurysm: clinical
features and natural history (M170389). The study was approved by the
University of the Witwatersrand ethics committee and conforms to the
principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki. Permission to use
data from the parent study was obtained. The current study was approved
by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of the
Witwatersrand (clearance certificate number: M 200822.). Permission to
retrieve and utilize the data was also obtained from Chris Hani
Baragwanath Academic Hospital management.