[Ophthalmologic manifestations of AIDS in an African milieu. Report of 45 cases]

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a pathological entity whose agent is a virus called HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). The principal immunological deficit is the insufficience of immunity in mediation cell. Actually AIDS can be considered as the "bubonic plague" of the 20th century. Eye lesions caused by AIDS could present in 54 to 94% of patients of AIDS (3,19). Eye symptoms can be classified into four main categories or groups: retinal vascular lesions, eye opportunist infections, neoplasms of the eye surface and the orbit and finally neuro-ophthalmological anomalies. This study was realised at the university clinic of Mont Amba in Kinshasa, Zaire. A total of 45 cases were studied of which 42 cases with full blown AIDS (1 Congolese, 3 Ruandese, 1 Zambian and 37 Zaireans) and the other three were HIV positive (all were Zaireans). Among the 45 cases, 20 were studied retrospectively with a counting down of 5 years, and 25 others comprised of a prospective group of study or research. The patients were seen either in an ophthalmology Department/Service, or in a medical Service/Centre or in both. The criteria of diagnosis of AIDS were almost the same: skin anergy, infections and/or neoplasm opportunists, the lymphopenia T4, the report T4/T8 low or inversed and the HIV serology positive. A complete opthalmological test was undertaken, the indirect ophthalmoscopy and the retina fluorography were not done. A sex ratio is 1,64 (28 men for 17 women). The 45 patients were sexually active heterosexuals. None of them used drug intravenously. No accidental case of blood transfusion was revealed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)