Hepatic histopathological findings in HIV patients at postmortem in Jos university teaching hospital, Nigeria

Multi-organ involvement by opportunistic infections and neoplasms is the major cause of morbidity and mortality in people living with HIV/AIDS. We determined the spectrum/frequency of hepatic histopathological lesions in a prospective study of postmortem liver biopsies from 100 patients (50 females and 50 males, age range 18-55 years) who died from HIV/AIDS in Jos university teaching hospital, Nigeria. The majority of the patients, 65 (65%), had clinical tuberculosis. Granulomatous hepatitis, chronic hepatitis, non-specific reactive hepatitis (NSRH) and steatosis were the commonest hepatic histopathologic lesions occurring in 34, 20,15 and 12% of patients, respectively. Seven (7%) had normal histological features. This study shows that the liver is affected in HIV/AIDS as reported elsewhere in the world. Therefore, liver biopsy in HIV patients may be helpful in the management of these patients.