Ability of HIV/AIDS patients to self-diagnose oral opportunistic infections

To assess the accuracy of HIV/AIDS patients' self-diagnosis of common HIV-related oral opportunistic infections.

245 HIV/AIDS patients were interviewed regarding the current presence of oral candidiasis (OC), oral hairy leukoplakia (OHL), and oral ulcers prior to an oral examination by an oral medicine trained dentist examiner. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) are reported for the patient's oral lesion diagnosis compared to the dentist's diagnosis based on established presumptive clinical criteria as the gold standard.

Self-diagnosis accuracy was greatest for pseudomembraneous OC (PPV 42.9%; NPV 93.5%), followed by oral ulcers (PPV 35.7%; NPV 98.3%) and OHL (PPV 23.5%; NPV 86.4%). Past experience with the lesion improved diagnostic accuracy, and bothersome symptoms accompanying the lesion had significant impact only for pseudomembraneous OC and oral ulcers.

Moderate accuracy of patient self-assessment of oral lesions, with tendency to under rather than over report lesion presence, supports the use of patient self-assessment of these lesions to augment clinician diagnosis in clinical trials. Additionally, HIV/AIDS patients are unlikely to believe they have active OC that would lead to on-demand antifungal use, unless they have had prior experience with the lesion or it is at least moderately bothersome.