Diagnostic problems in AIDS and the lung

Abstract

Since the first case of AIDS in the United Kingdom was described in 1981 (1), there have been up to October 1988, 1794 AIDS cases reported, of whom 965 are dead and 8794 individuals known to be Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) seropositive (2). In fact the actual number of seropositive individuals is likely to be far greater than this figure. A recent study of an HIV seropositive cohort suggests that the majority of individuals infected with HIV will eventually develop AIDS (3). Most of the cases in the U.K. have occurred in homo- or bisexual men, and the pattern of disease in the U.K. closely follows that of the epidemic in the United States. The association between AIDS and infection with HIV was demonstrated in 1983-4 (4,5) and HIV induced damage to the immune system with profound depression of cell mediated immunity is responsible for many of the manifestations of this extraordinary new disease (6). As the lung is the most frequently affected organ in AIDS (7), and as case numbers are likely to increase in the U.K., if the epidemic trend continues, Respiratory Physicians in the U.K. will be increasingly involved in the management of these patients. The purpose of this review is to highlight some of the diagnostic problems encountered in AIDS patients with lung disease.