[Acute infection associated with HIV: clinical and laboratory picture]

Very few case reports evaluate clinical and laboratory parameters of acute HIV infection. This paper describes seven such cases, four being mononucleosis like disease and one lymphocytic meningitis. Clinical manifestations were fever (7/7), lymphadenopathy (7/7), enlarged liver size (7/7) pharyngitis (6/7), malaise (4/7) and anorexia (4/7). Inversion of the normal T4/T8 ratio was present in 3/5 patients, all with normal absolute values for T4 cells. Moderate transaminase increases were found in 5/6; 5/7 had atypical lymphocytes in blood smear and 5/5 had abnormal mucoprotein levels. All patients had a total remission of clinical symptoms within two weeks. However, the abnormal lymph nodes and the enlarged liver persisted. Follow-up for ten months showed 4/7 patients with all abnormalities resolved and 3/7 still with persistent enlarged lymph nodes.