[Clinical profile of cytomegalovirus (CMV) enterocolitis in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome]. / Perfil clínico da Enterocolite por Citomegalovírus (CMV) na síndrome da imunodeficiência adquirida (Aids).

OBJECTIVE: To determine the clinical profile of CMV colitis in AIDS patients, comparing clinical, endoscopic parameters and survival time between 2 groups of AIDS patients having chronic diarrhea. Group A being CMV colitis and group B without CMV colitis. METHODS: 48 patients with diarrhea that lasted more than 30 days, being 27 in Group A and 21 in Group B, were studied. Age, risk factors, interval time between the diagnosis of HIV infection and the beginning of diarrhea, hematochesia, the endoscopic findings and life table in both groups, were analysed. All of them were diagnosed by stool culture and stools for ovum and parasites, along colonoscopy with biopsies. The unpaired t test was used to assess statistical significance of differences observed in the means of continuous and the chi-square with Yates correction for non-parametric variables. The survival curves were assessed by the Kaplan-Meier and the Mantel-Haenszel's tests. A P value of less than 0,05 was considered to indicate statistical significance. RESULTS: The mucosal lesions associated with the CMV infection are typically ulcerative on a background of hemorrhagic erythema 14 (51,8%) p < 0,01. The life table analysis disclosed shorter survival time in the CMV colitis group 0,005> P>0,001. The others studied data did not achieve statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: AIDS patients with CMV colitis have a poorer long-term survival. Among the colonoscopic findings, ulcerations with hemorrhagic background were the most common lesions.

Clinical and diagnostic aspects of intestinal microsporidiosis in HIV-infected patients with chronic diarrhea in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The objectives of this study were to determine both the prevalence of microsporidial intestinal infection and the clinical outcome of the disease in a cohort of 40 HIV-infected patients presenting with chronic diarrhea in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Each patient, after clinical evaluation, had stools and intestinal fragments examined for viral, bacterial and parasitic pathogens. Microsporidia were found in 11 patients (27.5%) either in stools or in duodenal or ileal biopsies. Microsporidial spores were found more frequently in stools than in biopsy fragments. Samples examined using transmission electron microscopy (n=3) or polymerase chain reaction (n=6) confirmed Enterocytozoon bieneusi as the causative agent. Microsporidia were the only potential enteric pathogens found in 5 of the 11 patients. Other pathogens were also detected in the intestinal tract of 21 patients, but diarrhea remained unexplained in 8. We concluded that microsporidial infection is frequently found in HIV infected persons in Rio de Janeiro, and it seems to be a marker of advanced stage of AIDS.

A 3-year follow-up of a Brazilian AIDS patient with protracted diarrhea caused by Enterocytozoon bieneusi.

Enterocytozoon bieneusi is the most prevalent microsporidian parasite that causes gastrointestinal infection in persons with AIDS. Microsporidia are increasingly recognized as important opportunistic pathogens all over the world but in Brazil only few cases have been reported due either to the non awareness of the clinical presentation of the disease or to difficulties in the laboratory diagnosis. We report a 3-year follow-up of a Brazilian HIV-positive patient in whom microsporidial spores were detected in stools and were identified as E. bieneusi using electron microscopy and PCR. The patient presented with chronic diarrhea, CD4 T-lymphocytes count below 100/mm3 and microsporidial spores were consistently detected in stools. Albendazole was given to the patient in several occasions with transient relief of the diarrhea, which reappeared as soon as the drug was discontinued. Nevertheless, a diarrhea-free period with weight gain up to 18 Kg occurred when a combination of nucleoside and protease inhibitors was initiated as part of the antiviral treatment.

[Epidemiological, social, and sanitary aspects in an area of the Rio Negro, State of Amazonas, with special reference to intestinal parasites and Chagas' disease]. / Aspectos epidemiológicos, sociais e sanitários de uma área no Rio Negro, estado do Amazonas, com especial referência às parasitoses intestinais e à infecção chagásica.

A cross-sectional study was carried out on the residents of one in every four dwellings in the town of Barcelos (in the northern part of the State of Amazonas, on the right bank of the Rio Negro, 490 kilometers from Manaus by river), in order to evaluate social and sanitary conditions and specific indicators for intestinal parasites and Chagas' infection. During the survey, two questionnaires were applied, a household one to evaluate social and sanitary aspects, and an individual one, for social and epidemiological evaluation of the population conditions. A conglomerate family sample of 171 dwellings was studied. From each of the 658 habitants, a sample was requested for stool examination by Lutz sedimentation and Baermann-Moraes-Coutinho techniques modified by Willcox & Coura (1989), and blood was collected in filter paper for immunofluorescence test by Camargo (1966) and Souza & Camargo (1966) methods modified by Petana & Willcox (1975). The stool examination showed 69.4% of samples with one or more parasites. Ascaris lumbricoides was predominant with 51% of positivity and Entamoeba histolytica, although surveyed by a non-specific method, was present in 19.7%. Surprisingly, 20.1% of the 658 sera samples were reactive for T. cruzi antibodies at a dilution of 1:20 and 13.7% at 1:40. There was a strong correlation between this result and the level of human contact with wild triatomines, known locally as "piasava lice", and we succeeded in isolating by xenodiagnosis one strain of T. cruzi from one patient, a sixty-one-year old man (n. 209 -1), a native of the area, with positive serology for Chagas' disease and who worked in agriculture and transporting piasava and was very familiar with "piasava lice".