Imaging features of CNS involvement in AIDS

Patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) are the subjects of a large part of routine neuroradiological work in the Western world currently. The World Health Organization announced that Turkish authorities had reported a cumulative total of 2544 HIV cases from 1985 to 2006, of whom 623 had developed AIDS and 140 had died. It is estimated that approximately one-third of AIDS patients develop neurological complications. The spectrum of diseases affecting the central nervous system (CNS) in AIDS patients comprises predominantly opportunistic infections and primary CNS lymphoma. Although to a lesser degree when compared with Western countries, the incidence of AIDS and related neurological diseases are on the rise also in Turkey. Therefore radiologists should recognize HIV-associated problems and their imaging features. In this review, we focus on imaging features of more common CNS diseases in HIV-seropositive patients. This essay has been prepared using radiological studies of the patients who had been managed in our hospital which is a tertiary care center with a highly motivated medical team for this peculiar disease in the years between 2002 and 2008.