title: Acute retroviral disease masquerading as bacterial sepsis: the "bands" play on.
abstract: We describe a case of acute human immunodeficiency virus infection that initially appeared to be bacterial sepsis. A marked increase in band forms was seen in the peripheral blood of our patient, with no increase in atypical lymphocytes. Having reviewed the most recent literature, we find this to be common, particularly in the first few days of acute retroviral illness. We suggest that the absence of atypical lymphocytes in the peripheral blood can be misleading in some cases and may militate against the primary diagnosis of acute retroviral disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA 23507, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Flemmer
authors.forename: E C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Oldfield
authors.forename: B H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Melek
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005335:Fever of Unknown Origin / Q000209:etiology; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018805:Sepsis / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*