Clinicomorphological observation of cytomegalovirus ventriculoencephalitis in HIV infection

A central nervous system (CNS) lesion in a HIV-infected patient presents particular difficulty in an infectiologist's work. No pathognomonic symptoms, a need for expensive instrumental and laboratory studies to interpret the nature of neurologic disease frequently lead to its late diagnosis, the inefficiency of etiotropic therapy, and severe consequences of organic brain lesion. A CNS lesion occurred in 16.3% of 957 patients with Stage 4B HIV infection (AIDS) treated at Moscow Infectious Diseases Hospital Two. Cytomegalovirus encephalitis accounts for 4-12% of cases of infectious CNS lesion in HIV infection and 15-18% of the cases with manifest cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection. CMV encephalitis develops in not only HIV-infected patients, but also in neonates and babies of the first months of life, less frequently in organ recipients; the pattern and pathogenesis of disease, its clinical features and early diagnosis remain inadequately studied. The paper describes a clinical case of CMV ventriculoencephalitis with the morphological characteristics of brain lesion in an adult patient with HIV infection.