The Thyroid in Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Forty-seven thyroids obtained at autopsy from patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) with no clinical manifestations of thyroid disease were analyzed systematically in order to determine the frequency and the major pathological characteristics of thyroid involvement in these individuals. The glands were obtained from 38 men and 9 women aged (on average) 33.6 yr. The specimens were weighed, measured, and evaluated after fixation in formalin Histological examination was performed on at least 10 macroscopically normal and altered areas. The anatomopathological lesions detected in 29 glands (613%) were chronic nonspecific focal inflammation (482%); mycobacteriosis and colloid goiter (172%); histoplasmosis, cryptococcosis, and lipomatosis (133%), and paracoccidioidomycosis and hyperplastic nodules (3A%). Although thyroid disease had not been clinically diagnosed, thyroid involvement was elevated (613%) and in 14 cases (293%) it was related to the immunodeficiency, with mycobacteria being the most common opportunistic agents. There appears to be no report of the association of lipomatosis with AIDS, although this was a frequent finding in the present study (13 7%), exceeding by far the rates reported in the literature (1-2%). Thus, thyroid lesions are frequent in AIDS patients, occurring in two thirds of the patients studied, especially those with disseminated infection.