[AIDS in children. Experience at the National Institute of Pediatrics]. / Síndrome de inmunodeficiencia adquirida en niños. Experiencia en el Instituto Nacional de Pediatría.

We describe retrospectively the experience with 44 cases of AIDS from January 1987 to October 1991 at the Instituto Nacional de Pediatria, a tertiary care children hospital in Mexico City. All patients with 2 ELISA and a positive Western Blot test were included. Thirty three patients were infected perinatally (75%) and 11 through blood transfusion (25%). Fourty one patients belonged to the P2 classification of the Centers for Disease Control. Chronic diarrhea (77%), lymphadenopathy (75%), hepatomegaly/splenomegaly (70%) and oral candidiasis (61%) were the most common clinical findings. Twenty patients died (45.4%). No statistical relation were found between survival rate and the way of transmission and age at onset. Autopsy was performed in 14 patients and revealed a sharp decrease of lymphoid tissue at all levels with severe thymic atrophy.

[Nephropathy in Schönlein-Henoch purpura]. / Nefropatía en la púrpura de Henoch Schonlein.

Over one hundred patients diagnosed with vascular purpura at the National Institute of Pediatrics between 1979 and 1988 were retrospectively studied. Frequency was similar for both sexes. 82% were between the ages of six months and 11 years old. The extrarenal clinical manifestations were: petechias in 98%; abdominal pain 78% arthralgias 45%; melena 39%; and arthritis in 19% of the cases, 49 patients had nephropathy of different degrees and they did differently, 32 had hematuria with or without proteinuria within a nephrotic range, seven suffered from a nephrotic syndrome, one with a nephritic syndrome and nine others had a combination of two or three syndromes (nephritic/nephrotic/renal failure) with an unfavorable evolution towards terminal renal failure in eight of them; on the other hand, this was not seen in the remaining patients. Thirteen renal biopsies were taken from patients with more severe clinical manifestations, finding in them mesangial proliferation or endo- and extracapillary proliferation. These findings suggest that the initial clinical presentation of the illness allows for the prediction of the future.