Presence and significance of cold agglutinins in patients with HIV infection.

Background: HIV-infected patients may contract a variety of other concurrent infections, including Mycoplasma pneumoniae, cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), that are known to be causes of transient cold agglutinins (CA). The aim of this study was to search for the prevalence, the persistence and the significance of CA in HIV antibody-positive patients.

Methods: Ninety patients belonging to different risk groups (drug addicts, homosexuals and hemophiliacs), including 15 with AIDS, 20 with ARC, 25 with PGL, 30 symptom-free individuals and 100 healthy blood donors were assessed for the presence of CA for at least six months.

Results: In 20 cases (22%) CA were found: 3, 7, 5 and 5 respectively, in each of the above mentioned HIV-positive groups, while the group used as control was CA-negative. There were no differences between CA-negative and CA-positive patients with regard to the presence of anemia, frequency of other infections, or development of lymphatic malignancy during the follow-up period. Serological specificity of CA included 14 of type anti-I, 5 of anti-i and 1 of anti-Pr specificity.

Conclusions: It appears that CA production is another immune disorder of patients with HIV infection.