[Pathological findings in patients with HIV infection and lymphadenopathies].

INTRODUCTION: Lymphadenopathy is a frequent clinical finding in HIV-infected patients. The differential diagnosis includes infection, malignancy or reactive changes. Currently, there are no data on this topic in the region. OBJECTIVES: To describe the etiology of lymph node pathology in HIV-infected patients from the Hospital La María in Medellín, Colombia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The medical records of HIV-infected patients with lymphadenopathy who underwent excisional lymph node biopsy between June 2009 and October 2011 were retrospectively evaluated. The data were registered according to immune status, antiretroviral therapy and final diagnosis. RESULTS: The evaluation of 120 medical records revealed the following diagnosis distribution: 58% of the cases were attributable to infectious causes, 32.5% were attributable to reactive changes, 6.6% were attributable to neoplastic disease, and 2.5% were normal. The most frequent diagnosis was tuberculosis, which was found in 48.3% of the patients. The lymph node biopsy was useful for identifying additional opportunistic infections in different organs in 14.1% of the patients. CONCLUSION: A lymph node biopsy in HIV-infected patients is a useful aid in the diagnosis of serious neoplastic and infectious diseases and should be routinely performed in such patients with lymphadenopathy.

Rasgo falciforme e infarto esplénico: una entidad no ajena en población antioqueña / Sickle trait and splenic infarction, a non-foreign entity in Antioquia population

Resumen Generalmente, los pacientes con rasgo falciforme sufren pocas manifestaciones del espectro de la anemia de células falciformes. El infarto esplénico es raro, pero es una complicación documentada del rasgo falciforme y, usualmente, se presenta en condiciones de disminución de la presión parcial de oxígeno, como ocurre en grandes alturas. Se presenta el caso de un joven sin antecedentes, quien presentó dolor súbito en hipocondrio izquierdo luego de viaje a zona de gran altura y en quien se documentó infarto esplénico y posteriormente se confirmó como etiología del cuadro, rasgo falciforme mediante electroforesis de hemoglobina. La mayoría de los pacientes desconocen su rasgo falciforme, lo que hace desafiante su enfoque, retrasa el diagnóstico y resulta en manejos inadecuados que pueden aumentar la extensión del infarto esplénico y requerir finalmente esplenectomía.

Abstract Generally, patients with sickle cell trait have few manifestations of the sickle cell spectrum. Splenic infarction is rare, but is a documented complication of sickle cell trait and usually occurs under conditions of decreased partial pressure of oxygen, such as at high altitudes. We present the case of a young man with no previous history who presented sudden pain in the left hypochondrium after traveling to a high-altitude area. Splenic infarction was documented and sickle cell trait was later confirmed with hemoglobin electrophoresis as the etiology of the condition. Most patients remain ignorant of their sickle cell trait, which makes their approach challenging, delays diagnosis, and results in inappropriate management that may increase the extent of splenic infarction and eventually require splenectomy.