Immune Recovery Syndrome in the HIV-positive patient: Radiological Findings of Paradoxical Reactions

To describe immune recovery syndrome (IRS) and related radiological findings in HIV-positive patients. To alert radiologists to the ever-increasingly frequent appearance of paradoxical reactions (PR) in granulomatous diseases under antiretroviral treatment. We present a retrospective study of 9 adult HIV-positive patients who showed IRS, 6 cases of tuberculosis (TBC), 2 cases of atypical mycobacterium and a case of sarcoidosis. At the time of IRS/PR diagnosis, any suspicion of infectious activity was excluded through the use of appropriate microbiological tests. clinical and radiological characteristics of the above mentioned cases are analyze here. All patients experienced a clinical and/or radiological worsening of condition following variable periods of antiretroviral and/or anti-tuberculosis treatment, and coinciding with viral load decrease and CD4-T-lymphocyte recovery. Diagnosis of IRS/PR was clinical in five cases and radiological in four. In all but one case, antiretroviral treatment had at some time been previously administered. IRS/PR is a diagnosis of exclusion which must be included in the differential diagnosis of newly appearing lesions or worsening of already existing ones in HIV-positive patients that have recently begun antiretroviral and/or anti-tuberculosis treatment. Such should be done after excluding drug resistance, treatment non-adherence and intercurrent disease. (Author) 8 refs