[Muscular complications in HIV infection]

Skeletal muscle involvement may occur at all stages of HIV-infection and represents the first manifestation of the disease into some patients. We usually classify muscle involvement in HIV-infected patients in one of the following categories: HIV-associated myopathy, a myopathy that meets the criteria for polymyositis in a majority of patients, and those for acquired nemaline myopathy in some cases (1); zidovudine myopathy, a reversible mitochondrial myopathy (2); HIV-wasting syndrome and other AIDS-associated cachexias (3); opportunistic infections and tumor infiltrations of the skeletal muscle (4); vasculitic processes and iron pigment deposits (5); HIV-associated myasthenia gravis (6) and rhabdomyolysis (7). Immunohistology for major histocompatibility complex class I antigen and histochemical reaction for cytochrome coxidase are helpful in the correct classification of a myopathy as HIV polymyositis or zidovudine myopathy.