[Neurologic manifestations of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome]

Recognition of the neurological symptoms and signs of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) since 1982 has demonstrated the involvement of the nervous system in approximately one third of the cases. Certain opportunistic infections or tumors had been previously described in the course of immunodeficiency states of other origins: cerebral toxoplasmosis, cryptococcosis, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, atypical mycobacteriosis and cerebral lymphoma. Other disorders such as subacute encephalitis raise specific etiopathogenic questions. Several of these affections can be associated or succeed each other and this is the natural course in AIDS. The detection of those conditions that are curable, among which toxoplasmosis, is of primary importance.