Serum carotene deficiency in HIV-infected patients. Berlin Diarrhoea/Wasting Syndrome Study Group.

Objective: To assess total serum carotene concentration in HIV-infected patients as an indicator of fat malabsorption in correlation with diarrhoea, secondary enteric infections, and blood lymphocyte subsets.

Design: Prospective study.

Setting: Two referral-based tertiary care centres in Berlin, Germany.

Hyaline globules reacting positively with zidovudine antibody in brain and spinal cord of AIDS patients.

Histology of the central nervous system in nine AIDS showed extracellular hyaline globules in the white matter of the brain and the spinal cord. In immunohistochemical studies with a battery of antibodies, the only positive reaction of these globules was with an antibody to zidovudine. High-performance liquid chromatography showed the presence of a zidovudine isomer in eluates of brain tissue from these patients.

Concentrations of magnesium, zinc and copper in serum of patients with acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome.

The concentrations of Mg, Zn, Cu and albumin, and pseudocholinesterase activity were measured in the sera of 31 AIDS patients, 27 belonging to group IVC1 and 4 to group IVC2. Mean values for all patients were within the normal ranges. Only two patients showed hypozincaemia.