Differential diffusions of indinavir and lopinavir in genital secretions of human immunodeficiency virus-infected women.

Plasma and cervicovaginal secretion (CVS) samples were collected from 19 human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected women on lopinavir- or indinavir-containing regimens. Lopinavir and indinavir were detectable in 29 and 93% of CVS samples, respectively, a finding that may be ascribed to these drugs' differences in protein binding and pK(a). The relationship between lopinavir and indinavir pharmacodynamics and viral evolution in the female genital tract should be assessed over time.

[Intracranial tuberculoma in Africa, with no available neuroimaging. Case report and review of the literature]. / Tuberculome intracrânien en milieu africain sans neuro-imagerie. A propos d'un cas et revue de la littérature.

The numerous extrapulmonary manifestations of tuberculosis have been well described. Intracranial localizations, including brain stem tuberculoma, are very rare. The authors report a case of brain tuberculoma in a patient with a history of primary pulmonary tuberculosis successfully treated more than twenty years earlier. The patient presented with signs of infection, although the fever disappeared temporarily after successive treatments for malaria (confirmed Plasmodium faiciparum), as well as neurological signs with left hemiparesis. Chest radiographs showed no signs of progressive pulmonary tuberculosis, and blood tests, cerebrospinal fluid testing, and HIV serology were all negative. Treatments for maxillary sinusitis, the malaria, bacterial meningitis, and cerebral abscess were equally ineffective. Brain stem tuberculoma was diagnosed only when the patient was transferred to a hospital equipped with neuroimaging equipment and was confirmed after histopathological examination of the intracranial lesion biopsies and the detection of mycobacterium DNA by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the cerebrospinal fluid. A review of 147 cases of intracranial tuberculoma reported in Africa between 1985 and 2001 points out the difficulties of both the differential diagnosis (tuberculoma or other intracranial space-occupying lesions) and treatment in African areas where neuroimaging is unavailable. Our patient's brainstem tuberculoma probably resulted from reactivation of latent tuberculosis.

[Neuromeningeal tuberculosis in northeastern suburbs of Paris. Nineteen cases]. / La tuberculose neuroméningée dans la banlieue nord-est de Paris.

SUBJECT: Analyze characteristics of neuromeningeal tuberculosis in the northeastern suburbs of Paris. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Retrospective study of 19 observations between 1988 and 1999. RESULTS: Thirteen cases of meningitis, 3 cases of meningitis associated with a tuberculoma and 3 cases with isolated tuberculoma were described. Young subjects (average age 46.4), foreign born (73.7%) were preferentially affected. Three patients were infected by the human immunodeficiency virus. Weight-loss and weakness (84%), fever (79%), headache (63%) dominate the clinical manifestations. The diagnosis delay was 56.6 days, and the therapeutic time, 8.6 days. The search for acid fast bacilli was positive only in one case on direct examination of the cerebrospinal fluid, whereas the culture was positive in 68.7% of the cases. Cerebral imagery was abnormal in13 patients. Average duration of antituberculous treatment was 13,4 months (range: 9-24). Corticosteroids were associated in 12 patients. Thirteen patients were cured, 3 died and 3 were lost to follow up. CONCLUSION: The characteristics of neuromeningeal tuberculosis are not modified, but the diagnosis delay of the neuromeningeal tuberculosis, which conditions the prognosis, remains significant. The optimal duration of the antituberculous treatment and the conditions of the steroid therapy have to be specified.