Pathological findings in patients with HIV infection and lymphadenopathies

Introduction: Lymphadenopathy is a frequent clinical finding in HIV-infected patients. The differential diagnosis includes infection, malignancy or reactive changes. Currently, there are no data on this topic in the region. Objectives: To describe the etiology of lymph node pathology in HIV-infected patients from the Hospital La Maria in Medellin, Colombia. Materials and methods: The medical records of HIV-infected patients with lymphadenopathy who underwent excisional lymph node biopsy between June 2009 and October 2011 were retrospectively evaluated. The data were registered according to immune status, antiretroviral therapy and final diagnosis. Results: The evaluation of 120 medical records revealed the following diagnosis distribution: 58% of the cases were attributable to infectious causes, 32.5% were attributable to reactive changes, 6.6% were attributable to neoplastic disease, and 2.5% were normal. The most frequent diagnosis was tuberculosis, which was found in 48.3% of the patients. The lymph node biopsy was useful for identifying additional opportunistic infections in different organs in 14.1% of the patients. Conclusion: A lymph node biopsy in HIV-infected patients is a useful aid in the diagnosis of serious neoplastic and infectious diseases and should be routinely performed in such patients with lymphadenopathy.