Caracterizando al enemigo: Infecciones oportunistas en el sistema nervioso central en pacientes con VIH, una serie de casos colombiana

Introduction

The opportunistic infections continue to be one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality in HIV-positive; additionally, the central nervous system is one of the most frequently compromised systems. Despite this and the high AIDS mortality rate in Colombia, there are only a few studies that characterize the opportunistic infections of the central nervous system in HIV-positive patients in the country.

Objective

To describe the opportunistic infections in the central nervous system and its associated demographic factors in HIV-positive patients, treated in a public hospital of Bogotá.

Materials and methods

This study is a retrospective case series study of HIV-AIDS patients hospitalized at Santa Clara Hospital in 2015-2016. Both clinical, paraclinical and demographic variables were collected and a description was made by etiologic agent using the Chi2 test, student t, Mann-Whitney U, ANOVA or Kruskal Wallis (statistical significance of P < 0.05)

Results

From 538 HIV-AIDS patients, 56 had an opportunistic infection of the central nervous system. Most of them were men, with a mean age of 37,96 (SD 9,96). The average CD4 count was 74 cells/μL and the most prevalent neuroinfection was cerebral Toxoplasmosis.

Conclusions

Central nervous system infections, diagnosed at Hospital Santa Clara, were associated with more than one etiologic agent in some of the patients. The most frequently found infections were caused by Toxoplasma gondii and Cryptococcus neoformans; which had high percentages of mortality and clinical associated complications.