Utility of abdominal ultrasonography in HIV patients.
BACKGROUND
Various diseases associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection are often difficult to diagnose. A poor immune response, atypical presentations and opportunistic pathologies all contribute to this difficulty. We tried to evaluate the utility of routine abdominal ultrasonography (US) in new and follow-up HIV cases, and compared the results among those with a clinical need for US and those where US was performed as a routine screening.


METHODS
150 consecutive seropositive patients were subdivided into four groups depending on the necessity of abdominal US on the initial workup, i.e. Group A (38 patients) or B (112 patients), and whether they were newly-diagnosed HIV patients or follow-up patients, i.e. Group X (62 patients) or Y (88 patients), giving us subgroups, AX (22 patients), AY (16 patients), BX (40 patients) and BY (72 patients).


RESULTS
The prevalence of significant US findings was higher in those with CD4 less than 200 cells/ml (77.8 percent) compared to those with CD4 200-500 cells/ml and CD4 more than 500 cells/ml (65.5 percent and 37 percent, respectively). 24 out of 38 patients with clinical indications and 71 out of 112 patients without any obvious clinical need for US, had positive findings on US, the majority of which had a major therapeutic impact.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that abdominal US is a simple and cost-effective tool in resource-poor countries like India, where HIV care is becoming more and more important.
Chakraborty
P P
PP
Department of Medicine, Midnapore Medical College, PO Midnapore, District P Medinipur, West Bengal 721101, India. docparthapc@yahoo.co.in
Bandyopadhyay
D
D
D000005:Abdomen / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D023241:Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active; D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006679:HIV Seropositivity; D006503:Hepatic Veins / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D015995:Prevalence; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000379:methods*; D020246:Venous Thrombosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging