The use of polymerase chain reaction to confirm diagnosis in skin biopsies consistent with American tegumentary leishmaniasis at histopathology: a study of 90 cases.

Background: Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a chronic, infectious disease caused by protozoa of the genus leishmania. The incidence of this disease is high in Brazil, with 19,746 new cases having been detected in 2008. The presence of amastigotes in the cytoplasm of histiocytes constitutes diagnosis of the disease; however, their presence is rarely found in late lesions, making histological diagnosis difficult.

Morphometric analysis of dendritic cells from anal mucosa of HIV-positive patients and the relation to intraepithelial lesions and cancer seen at a tertiary health institution in Brazil.

Purpose: To morphometrically quantify CD1a+ dentritic cells and DC-SIGN+ dendritic cells in HIV-positive patients with anal squamous intraepithelial neoplasia and to evaluate the effects of HIV infection, antiretroviral therapy and HPV infection on epithelial and subepithelial dendritic cells.

Methods: A prospective study was performed to morphometrically analyze the relative volume of the dendritic cells and the relationship between anal intraepithelial neoplasia and cancer in HIV-positive patients from the Tropical Medicine Foundation of Amazonas, Brazil. All patients were submitted to biopsies of anorectal mucosa to perform a classic histopathological and immunohistochemical analysis, employing antibodies against CD1a and DC-SIGN for the morphometric quantification of dendritic cells.

Anal cancer precursor lesions in HIV-positive and HIV-negative patients seen at a tertiary health institution in Brazil.

Purpose: To investigate the prevalence of anal squamous intraepithelial lesions (ASIL) or anal cancer in patients attended at the Tropical Medicine Foundation of Amazonas.

Methods: 344 patients consecutively attended at the institution, in 2007/2008, were distributed in the following strata according to presence/abscense of at risk conditions for anal cancer: Group 1 - HIV-positive men-who-have-sex-with-men (101); Group 2 - HIV-positive females (49); Group 3 - patients without any at risk condition for anal cancer (53); Group 4 - HIV-positive heterosexual men (38); Group 5 - HIV-negative patients, without anoreceptive sexual habits, but with other at risk conditions for anal cancer (45); Group 6 - HIV-negative men-who-have-sex-with-men (26); and Group 7 - HIV-negative anoreceptive females (32). The histopathological results of biopsies guided by high-resolution anoscopy were analyzed by frequentist and bayesian statistics in order to calculate the point-prevalence of ASIL/cancer and observe any eventual preponderance of one group over the other.

[Causes of death among patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome autopsied at the Tropical Medicine Foundation of Amazonas].

The aim of this study was to investigate the causes of death among 129 AIDS patients that were autopsied at the Tropical Medicine Foundation of Amazonas between 1996 and 2003. The degree of concordance between the autopsy diagnoses and the clinical diagnoses was observed. The disease that most frequently caused death was tuberculosis (28%), followed by bacterial pneumonia (17%), histoplasmosis (13%), toxoplasmosis (10%), pneumocystosis (8%), cryptococcosis (5%), bacterial sepsis (4%) and other causes (15%).