Disseminated histoplasmosis in AIDS. Clinicopathologic features in seven patients from a non-endemic area.

Although the clinical and epidemiologic features of progressive disseminated histoplasmosis (PDH) in the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) have been well described, the pathologic and pulmonary aspects remain to be fully defined. A retrospective review of three patients and a prospective study of four more with PDH and AIDS recently admitted to an inner city hospital in a non-endemic area were used to elucidate these features more fully. All patients were men aged 23 to 46 years, born in endemic areas, who had immigrated to the US seven to 15 years before the onset of their illnesses.

Pleural tuberculosis in patients with and without AIDS.

We retrospectively reviewed the records of 71 patients to determine the epidemiologic and clinical features of pleural tuberculosis in patients with and without AIDS and compared the composition of pleural fluid in these two groups of patients. By age, race, sex, and country of birth, the 21 AIDS and 50 non-AIDS patients with pleural tuberculosis were comparable. However, the AIDS patients were more likely to be intravenous drug abusers than the non-AIDS patients (15/21 vs 6/50, p less than .

Rapid noninvasive diagnosis of Pneumocystis carinii from induced liquefied sputum.

Pneumocystis carinii organisms cluster in alveolar casts. A method for concentrating alveolar casts in sputum specimens might improve the diagnostic usefulness of sputum studies in possible cases of pulmonary infection with Pneumocystis carinii. The use of sputum induction to detect Pneumocystis carinii was studied in 40 consecutive patients with known or suspected human immunodeficiency virus infection having bronchoscopy for evaluation of pulmonary disease.