Shorter survival in HIV-positive patients with diarrhoea who excrete adenovirus from the GI tract. |
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| Authors: | C A Sabin G S Clewley J R Deayton A Mocroft M A Johnson C A Lee J E McLaughlin P D Griffiths |
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| Institution: | Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences, Royal Free and University College Medical School, London, England. caroline@rfhsm.ac.uk |
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| Abstract: | Adenoviruses have been described as a cause of diarrhoea in patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The prevalence of adenoviruses was studied in all HIV-positive patients presenting with diarrhoea at the Royal Free Hospital in London between 1991 and 1995. In addition, all postmortems carried out in HIV-positive individuals registered at the same centre between 1990 and 1997 were reviewed for evidence of adenovirus infection. Adenovirus was detected in 16.1% of patients presenting with diarrhoea. These individuals had a significantly lower CD4 count and were more likely to have had a diagnosis of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) than patients with diarrhoea in whom adenovirus was not detected. The median survival was 1 year compared with 2.4 years for those without adenoviruses; this difference remained significant (P = .008) after controlling for differences in CD4 counts between the groups. Gastrointestinal adenovirus excretion occurs at an advanced stage of HIV disease, and is associated with a poor prognosis. We suggest that adenoviruses may contribute to mortality in this population. |
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