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Query: UMLS:C0019693 (HIV)
 170,526 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Nervous system opportunistic infections are seen in about one fifth of AIDS cases and account for over 40% of the patients with neurological manifestations. Serious infections are seen in severely immunosuppressed patients, usually with CD4 counts of 200 ml-1 or less. The commonest is CMV, which can produce acute encephalitis, sometimes with focal hemisphere or brain-stem signs, dementia, retinitis, optic neuritis and an ascending radiculomyeloencephalitis. Cryptococcal meningitis is the most frequent fungal disease; a high degree of clinical suspicion is required in patients with fever, malaise, headache or seizures. Only CSF cultures are always positive; both serum and CSF cryptococcal antigen tests are highly sensitive and specific. Treatment with amphotericin B and flucytosine is successful in at least 70% of first episodes but side-effects are common. Without maintenance therapy 50% of patients relapse; fluconazole is recommended. Cerebral toxoplasmosis can present with focal cerebral or spinal cord signs but also as a diffuse encephalopathy; negative T. gondii serology is exceptional but positive serum titres are usually unhelpful. Treatment with sulfadiazine, pyrimethamine and folinic acid achieves good results in 90% of the first episodes, but side-effects are common. Appearances on CT scan or MRI may take several weeks to improve. The value of an empirical approach to treatment is well-established; an initial cerebral biopsy is difficult to justify. Without maintenance therapy a relapse rate of 50% can be expected; therapy with sulfadiazine and pyrimethamine may also prevent pneumocystosis. HIV disease appears to increase the likelihood of neurosyphilis, and the risk of relapse after conventional penicillin doses, in patients with syphilis; at least 3-4 weeks of appropriate therapy are recommended. A number of other diseases caused by viruses, fungi, bacteria and parasites are less common; these include progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, herpes simplex and zoster infections and tuberculosis.
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PMID:Central nervous system opportunistic infections in HIV disease: clinical aspects. 134 47

Twenty-four consecutive HIV-positive patients affected by Toxoplasma gondii encephalitis received trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (cotrimoxazole) as acute-phase treatment. Two dosage regimens of cotrimoxazole were used: 40 mg/kg/day (12 patients) or 120 mg/kg/day (12 patients) of total compound (trimethoprim plus sulfamethoxazole). Clinical and radiological responses to treatment were evaluated, and the product-limit method for survival data analysis was used. Eighteen of 24 patients showed both a clinical and radiological response (75% response rate). There were no differences in response rates between patients receiving the two dosage regimens of cotrimoxazole. Adverse reaction consisted of leukopenia (two cases) and skin rash (three cases) which led to the discontinuation of the drug in one case. These results suggest that a randomized, controlled clinical trial should be carried out comparing cotrimoxazole versus sulfadiazine-pyrimethamine in AIDS patients with Toxoplasma gondii encephalitis.
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PMID:Cotrimoxazole therapy of Toxoplasma gondii encephalitis in AIDS patients. 139 26

Nervous system involvement in patients with AIDS is frequent either due to direct infection by the HIV-1 or to opportunistic infections or neoplasms. In the present study we evaluate the epidemiologic characteristics of patients in whom the first AIDS manifestation was an indicative neurologic disease (IND) and the influence of such a presenting form in the patients' survival. Out of 1250 reported cases, 252 (20.2%) presented with one of the INDs, according with the CDC AIDS definition criteria. Neither sex nor age differences were found between patients presenting with and without an IND. IVDUs were more likely to present with an IND than homosexual/bisexual men (p = 0.024). Cerebral toxoplasmosis (CT) was the only IND with a significant proportional increase over time. Although some of the IND have a specific treatment, as a whole patients presenting with an IND lived shorter than those presenting with any of the other indicative disorders (p less than 0.0001). The incidence of IND is greater than elsewhere, mainly because of CT. The increment of CT may be in part due to the introduction of the new AIDS definition criteria.
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PMID:Trends and survival for AIDS patients presenting with indicative neurologic diseases. 192 60

Since the onset of the AIDS epidemic, disseminated Histoplasma capsulatum infection has been reported with much greater frequency in both endemic and nonendemic areas. Abdominal CT scans of 16 patients with disseminated histoplasmosis were reviewed retrospectively to identify radiologic features of this disease. The diagnosis was confirmed by autopsy (three patients), bone marrow biopsy (10 patients), lymph node biopsy (three patients), bronchoscopic biopsy (three patients), liver biopsy (two patients), and/or colonoscopic biopsy (one patient). Fourteen patients had serologic evidence of human immunodeficiency virus infection. Disseminated histoplasmosis was either the only initial manifestation of AIDS (seven patients) or was accompanied simultaneously by cytomegalovirus infection (four patients), or Kaposi sarcoma, Toxoplasma encephalitis, or cryptosporidiosis (one patient each). Abdominal CT findings included hepatomegaly (63%); splenomegaly (38%); diffuse splenic hypottenuation (19%); bilateral adrenal enlargement or hypoattenuating masses (13%); and enlarged lymph nodes with homogeneous soft-tissue density (44%), diffuse or central low density (13%), or both (19%). Histoplasmosis should be included in the differential diagnosis when abdominal CT scans show such nonspecific findings as hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, enlarged soft-tissue-density or hypoattenuating lymph nodes, or adrenal enlargement or masses in an immunodeficient patient. An uncommon but possibly specific CT finding in histoplasmosis is diffuse splenic hypoattenuation.
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PMID:Disseminated histoplasmosis: abdominal CT findings in 16 patients. 192 16

The acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is fundamentally the same disease in all parts of the world, but the prevalence of microorganisms in an environment governs the patterns of disease arising from reactivated latent infections, invading pathogens and opportunistic infections. AIDS in Africa has certain characteristic presentations. Enteropathic AIDS is most common: Cryptosporidium and Isospora belli are identified in up to 60% of patients, but it is uncertain whether they are the causes of diarrhoea. Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia is rare. Tuberculosis, both pulmonary and extrapulmonary, is the supreme complicating infection. Herpes zoster is frequently the first clinical presentation, and has a 95% positive predictive value for HIV positivity. Measles may be more frequent in infants born to HIV-infected mothers, and appears to be worse in HIV-infected children. There is accelerated progress of both diseases in patients infected by HIV and Mycobacterium leprae. Salmonellosis is frequent. There is no direct interaction between malaria and HIV, but, by being a potent cause of anaemia, malaria enhances transmission of HIV to children through blood transfusion. HIV-positive subjects are liable to new or reactivated visceral leishmaniasis with dissemination to unusual sites. Cerebral toxoplasmosis is common. There are no apparent interactions between HIV and helminths, although there is one report of hyperinfection with Strongyloides stercoralis. Cryptococcal meningitis has high frequency. Infections with Histoplasma encapsulatum are common in tropical America, but there has been no increase of frequency of H. duboisii in Africa since the advent of AIDS.
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PMID:Opportunistic infections in AIDS in developed and developing countries. 220 Nov 7

We studied the clinical records of 280 patients admitted to our Hospital between 1985 and 1988, with a positive Elisa test for HIV-related antibodies: 15.71% (44) of these patients exhibited clinical abnormalities related to disease of the CNS. In 6 (13.6%) patients the neurological complication was the first manifestation of HIV-infection. Patients were mainly male homosexuals, in the 30-39 age range. Frequent chief complaints included hemiparesis, headache and behavior disturbances. Cerebral toxoplasmosis was diagnosed in 18 instances. It should be considered the first diagnostic possibility in patients presenting with mass lesions. Meningeal infections were present in 19 cases (cryptococcal in 13, tuberculous in 4, HIV-related in 2). CSF findings in these patients were non specific, except for demonstration of Cryptococcus neoformans on direct examination of CSF or culture studies. CT scans frequently displayed unique or multiple hypodense lesions. The lesions exhibited ring-enhancement in 7 instances, and were non-enhancing in 8 others. Cortical and subcortical atrophy with hydrocephalus ex-vacuum were occasionally found, and the CT scans were normal in 8 instances. Time from appearance of the various neurological complications to death or clinical resolution was almost always shorter than 6 months. Death was the most frequent outcome, usually occurring within 6 months. Survival in the most of these patients never reached the end of the first year.
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PMID:[Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome: analysis of neurologic complications in 44 cases]. 263 80

Seventy to eighty percent of HIV-infected patients exhibit neurological disorders at an advanced stage of the disease. In almost 90% of cases anatomical examination of brains shows histological lesions. Even when often reversible neurological disorders occur during the HIV primary infection, most of the manifestations of central nervous system (CNS) damage remains the prerogative of severe immunodepression. The principal CNS lesions associated with HIV infection are presented here with the clinical and biological elements that lead to the diagnosis. Cerebral toxoplasmosis holds a privileged place in these manifestations since it responds to an efficient curative and prophylactic treatment with a well-codified medical care based on the test treatment. Biological data, therefore, only have a contributing value. HIV encephalopathy is frequent, but the dementia syndrome is less frequent than the finding of associated imaging and pathological anatomy: atrophy and lesions of the white matter. Thus, the dementia complex is an elimination diagnosis. Cryptococcosis must be systematically considered, not only in patients with meningeal symptoms and headaches, but also with those with isolated fever. The demonstration of cryptococcus and cryptococcic antigen in the CSF has an almost absolute diagnostic value; imaging plays a very small diagnostic role, looking for an exceptional cryptococcoma. Multifocal progressive leukoencephalopathy benefits from the accuracy of MRI, and the diagnosis is usually based on clinical data, MRI and evidence of the virus in the CSF by PCR, even though the only mean of obtaining full proof is, in theory, stereotaxic biopsy. Primary cerebral lymphoma is the diagnostic alternative to toxoplasmosis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:[Clinical and paraclinical diagnosis of AIDS neurologic lesions]. 747 28

The brains of 200 patients who died with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) from Berlin were examined retrospectively. This study was specifically intended to evaluate and document the prevalence of neuropathologic abnormalities, establishing the frequency of the various types of structural lesions, their combinations, their relative incidence, and the risk factors involved in different age groups. The data were compared and contrasted with the findings reported from other parts of the world and other German cities. It was found that the mean age of this group of patients was 41.4 years old, 75% were homosexual/bisexuals (H/B) and 18.5% were drug abusers (DA). Only 5.5% were women. Brain parenchymal changes, called in this report, HIV-related encephalopathy (HIVRE), characterized by vacuolization or spongy changes and astrocytosis in the subcortical white matter, and occasionally in gray matter, were found in 67 patients (33.5%). Drug abusers had a higher incidence of HIVRE (59.5%) compared with homosexual/bisexuals (28%). This is statistically significant (p < 0.0005). CMV encephalitis was found in 26 patients (13%) (8% of the drug abusers in contrast to 13% in the homosexual/bisexuals group). Primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) was seen in 28 patients (14%) regardless of the risk factor involved. 20 (13%) of the 150 H/B and 3 (8%) of the 37 DA had CMV encephalitis. Of the 150 H/B, 24 (16%) had PCNSL compared with only 4 of 37 (11%) of the DA. A significant incidence of opportunistic infections, both protozoal and viral was found in all groups. Cerebral toxoplasmosis occurred in 68 patients (34%). Microglial (phagocytic) nodules, probably related to CMV or cerebral Toxoplasmosis, were observed in 40 cases (20%). Diffuse microglial proliferation was noted in 104 patients (52%). Cerebral cryptococcosis was found in three patients. Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy was seen in 16 patients (8%). Various combinations of CNS pathological processes were found in 44 of the patients (22%). These include concomitant infections with Toxoplasma gondii and HIVRE in 13 patients; Toxoplasmosis and PCNSL in 8 patients; Toxoplasmosis with CMV and HIVRE in 4 patients; Toxoplasmosis with CMV in 2 patients; Toxoplasmosis with PCNSL and CMV in 2 patients; Toxoplasmosis with PCNSL and HIVRE in 2 patients and Toxoplasmosis with PML and HIVRE in 2 patients; Cerebral CMV with PCNSL and HIVRE in 4 patients; Cerebral CMV with HIVRE in 2 patients; PML with PCNSL in one patient; PML with HIVRE in 2 patients; and PML with PCNSL and HIVRE in one patient. Cerebrovascular lesions were found in 34 patients (17%).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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PMID:The neuropathology and epidemiology of AIDS. A Berlin experience. A review of 200 cases. 747 62

Autopsy or biopsy findings in 10 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive persons from Bangalore, India, revealed a wide spectrum of pathological changes. Patients' mean age was 33.4 years and the mean duration between symptom onset and death was 27.13 days. Nine patients had evidence of neuro-acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and 8 of them succumbed to various opportunistic infections. Histologic examination showed diffuse cryptococcal meningitis in 5 cases; 2 cases showed disseminated systemic cryptococcosis. Pulmonary tuberculosis was present in 3 patients. Despite no signs of associated neurotuberculosis in any patient, 4 autopsied and 1 biopsied case showed evidence of systemic tuberculosis. Toxoplasma encephalitis was present in 2 cases; observed in this series was the first case, in India, of co-existent toxoplasma and acanthamoeba. Other bacterial infections such as meningococcal meningitis and psudomonas septicemia were found in 3 cases; pneumocystis carinii pneumonia was present in 1 case. Evidence of early HIV leukoencephalopathy was observed in the only asymptomatic HIV-positive individual (who died in a traffic accident). AIDS-associated bacterial infections caused by organisms other than Mycobacterium tuberculosis are often underdiagnosed and should be considered in developing countries. In cases of cryptococcal and tuberculosis meningitis or multiple parasitic infections, patients should be screened for associated HIV infection.
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PMID:Pathological lesions in HIV positive patients. 775 Oct 41

We reviewed the histological features of untreated toxoplasmosis in 18 cases with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), eight of which were surgical biopsies and 10 of which were autopsy specimens. The results were compared according to the clinical status of the patient at the time the diagnosis of toxoplasmosis was made (early-onset v late-onset AIDS) and according to the source of the specimen (surgical biopsy specimen v autopsy specimen). Cerebral toxoplasmosis was the AIDS-defining illness in half of the cases (six surgical biopsy specimens and three autopsy specimens). Inflammation in these cases was moderate in 44% and severe in 56%. Fibrous capsules were found in five cases. Lymphocytes and plasma cells were more prominent than neutrophils. Cerebral toxoplasmosis developed in or was part of the terminal AIDS illness in the remaining nine cases (two surgical biopsy specimens and seven autopsy specimens). In this group inflammation was sparse in 44%, moderate in 55%, and severe in only 11%. Fibrous capsules were usually absent and neutrophils were the predominant cell type. Comparisons between surgical biopsy specimens and autopsy specimens showed moderate to severe inflammation and frequent fibrous encapsulation in all of the former specimens but only in those autopsy specimens in which toxoplasmosis was the initial manifestation of AIDS. Thus, this study demonstrates varied neuropathological patterns of untreated cerebral toxoplasmosis in patients with AIDS and correlates the inflammatory response in the brain with the clinical stage of the patient's human immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV) infection. Inflammation and fibrous encapsulation were common only in patients with early-onset AIDS in whom cerebral toxoplasmosis was the first manifestation of the illness. This study highlights important differences between the histology of this infection at surgical biopsy and at autopsy, and stresses the need to consider toxoplasma as a potential cause of encapsulated brain abscesses.
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PMID:Histopathology of cerebral toxoplasmosis in human immunodeficiency virus infection: a comparison between patients with early-onset and late-onset acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. 792 15


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