[Value of digestive endoscopic examination in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (45 cases)]

45 patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) were studied with gastrointestinal endoscopy (42 upper endoscopies and 12 colonoscopies). 28 patients had skin or buccal Kaposi's sarcoma with or without opportunistic infections and 17 had opportunistic infections. 12 patients out of 45 (27 per cent) had 1 or several Kaposi's sarcoma macroscopic gastrointestinal localisations, 12 documented by upper endoscopy and 4 by colonoscopy. Endoscopic biopsies confirmed the diagnosis 5 times out of 16 (31 per cent). 16 patients (38 per cent) had candidosis oesophagitis, 1 had ulcerative antritis, 2 had a erythematosus duodenitis, 6 had diffuse inflammatory mucosal colonic changes. The specific abnormalities documented by histology were 1 case of total villous atrophy and 2 cases of cytomegalovirus colitis. The patients with cutaneous Kaposi's sarcoma have more often shown gastrointestinal Kaposi's sarcoma than the patients without Kaposi's sarcoma. The prevalence of tumoral or major (diffuse candidosis oesophagitis, ulcerative antritis, active colitis) endoscopic abnormalities documented by upper endoscopy was 40 per cent (10 cases out of 25) in asymptomatic patients, 43 per cent in diarrheic patients (3 cases out of 7) and 60 per cent (6 cases out of 10) in patients with dysphagia, epigastralgic pain or vomiting and that of documented by colonoscopy was 75 per cent (3 cases out of 4) in patients with mucus or bloody stools and 14 per cent (1 case out of 7) in diarrheic patients. The main result of the endoscopy on AIDS patients has therefore been the diagnosis of visceral localisations of Kaposi's sarcoma. The appearance of the secondary major lesions related to opportunistic infections is unusual, especially in asymptomatic patients. A systematic endoscopy on these patients remains a disputed question.