Morphological changes in the digestive system of 322 necropsies of patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome: comparison of findings pre- and post-HAART (Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy)

ABSTRACT Involvement of the digestive system in AIDS pathologies or injuries is frequent. Aiming at comparing the frequency, the importance that these lesions have for death and the survival time in patients using or not using HAART, we studied 322 necropsies classified as follows: Group A - without...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo
Main Authors: Lucinda Calheiros Guimarães, Ana Cristina Araújo Lemos da Silva, Adilha Misson Rua Micheletti, Everton Nunes Melo Moura, Mario Léon Silva-Vergara, Sebastião Tostes Júnior, Sheila Jorge Adad
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Universidade de São Paulo (USP)
Subjects:
Autopsy
Necropsy
AIDS
Digestive system
HAART
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine
RC955-962
Infectious and parasitic diseases
RC109-216
Arctic
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1590/s1678-9946201759003
https://doaj.org/article/01d78935de6e480bb6db261c334866d2
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Summary:ABSTRACT Involvement of the digestive system in AIDS pathologies or injuries is frequent. Aiming at comparing the frequency, the importance that these lesions have for death and the survival time in patients using or not using HAART, we studied 322 necropsies classified as follows: Group A - without antiretroviral drugs (185 cases); B - one or two antiretroviral drugs or HAART for less than six months (83 cases); C - HAART for six months or longer (54 cases). In the overall analysis of the digestive system, changes were present in 73.6% of cases. The most frequent was Candida infection (22.7%), followed by cytomegalovirus (19.2%), Histoplasma capsulatum (6.5%), mycobacteria (5.6%), and Toxoplasma gondii (4.3%). T. gondii infection was more frequent in group A compared with group C, and cytomegalovirus (CMV) was more frequent in group A compared with groups B and C (p < 0.05); 2.2% of the deaths were due to gastrointestinal bleeding. Regarding the segments, only in the large intestine, and only cytomegalovirus, were more frequent in group A compared with group C. We conclude that digestive system infections are still frequent, even with the use of HAART. However, the average survival time in group C was more than three times greater than the one in group A and nearly double that of group B, demonstrating the clear benefit of this therapy.

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