title: [Cerebral cortex and HIV lesion specificity. A neuropathological study of the brain of 100 drug addicts].
abstract: Brains of AIDS patients do often display characters of HIV specificity, in the presence or not of opportunistic lesions. Mesodermal nodules with giant cells, and a peculiar primary demyelination, the progressive diffuse leukoencephalopathy of Kleihues et al., which can be found only in brains with giant cells, have been pointed out as typical. In 100 intra venous drug user patients, younger than 32 years (mean age: 26) the HIV specificity described was observed on 49 occasions. All these patients presented with Seitelberger's glio-neuronal poliodystrophy (GP), quite similar to that encountered in several kinds of encephalopathies. Nevertheless, in 35 of the patients with HIV typical findings, there was in the cortex and some other grey matter regions, an amount of diffuse mesodermal elements uncommon in encephalopathies, and so relevant as to contradict the notion itself of this kind of cerebral lesion, where "inflammatory" events ought not to appear. This aspect of HIV encephalopathy was indicated by us as "GP plus". An optic microscopy examination of the cortex allowed us to establish how in GP plus the neuronal changes are more severe and apparently older than in the other patients considered. The fact that the astrocytes did not behave differently in the two aspects of encephalopathy lead us to conclude that GP plus sets in through processes distinct from those in encephalopathy tout-court, and to put forward that it is a further character of HIV specificity.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Neurologia, Università degli Studi di Parma.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lechi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cristina
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Majno
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saginario
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Trabattoni
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vago
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tedeschi
mesh_terms: D015526:AIDS Dementia Complex / Q000473:pathology*; D000328:Adult; D001344:Autopsy; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D006652:Histological Techniques; D006801:Humans; D009474:Neurons / Q000473:pathology; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000473:pathology*; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000473:pathology
vernacular_title: Corteccia cerebrale e specificità lesionale HIV. Studio neuropatologico sull'encefalo di 100 tossicodipendenti.