[AIDS in children. Histopathologic study of 12 cases]

The anatomo-clinical investigation of a series of 12 cases of AIDS in infants, over two years in Hôpital des Enfants Malades (Paris) allows the following observations to be made: the frequency of materno-foetal contaminations (8/12); the relative shortness of the incubation period (3-6 months); the variable degree of the atrophy of the lymphoid tissues; the absence of vascular proliferation; the interest of demonstrating viral proteins associated with LAV virus (p 18) in imprecisely identifiable cells of lymphoid tissue; the severity of the thymic alterations, which are characterized less by a lymphocyte depletion than by a loss of the maturation of the epithelial tissue, which still preserves its hormone secretory properties.