Pleural pathology in HIV-infected patients: features of morphological diagnostics

Background. The progression of HIV infection is accompanied by the development of opportunistic diseases, including pleural effusions of various origins. Morphological examination of pleura tissue in cases of pleural effusion serves as the basis for establishing the etiology of the pathological process and, therefore, the final clinical diagnosis. Objective – analysis of results of morphological diagnostics of pleura lesions in HIV-infected patients in comparison with other laboratory tests and clinical diagnosis. Methods. 103 cases of pleurisy of various origins were studied. Pleural biopsies were obtained by various types of minimally invasive diagnostic interventions with subsequent morphological examination. Results were compared with the available data of microbiological and molecular genetic studies of pleural biopsies. Results. At the time of hospitalization the preliminary clinical diagnosis was pleurisy of unknown etiology in 96,1 % of cases. A combined disease was diagnosed – hepatitis C in a third of all observations according to the results of laboratory tests. Due to routine staining with hematoxylin and eosin, tuberculosis lesions of the pleura were diagnosed in 59,2 %, the second most frequent was the diagnosis of nonspecific pleurisy, 20,4 %. According to the duration of the process, acute pleural tuberculosis was established in 19,7 % of cases, the subacute form of tuberculosis pleurisy – in 54,1 % of cases, and chronic pleural tuberculosis was established in 22,9 % of cases. In 17,5 % of cases, in order to clarify the etiology of pleurisy, additional histochemical staining for infectious agents was performed. The results of microbiological and molecular genetic studies were established in 76,7 % of cases. The greatest number of M. tuberculosis detection was obtained during the culture study of the biopsy material and exudates. When comparing the final clinical diagnosis and the level of CD4 cells in peripheral blood, it was found that in most cases (74,5 %) pleural effusions developed at low counts of CD4 cells, less than 350/l. Conclusion. Tuberculosis predominates in the etiological structure of pleural effusions in patients with HIV infection. Pleural tuberculosis can be the main secondary disease or be combined with pulmonary tuberculosis. In second place in terms of frequency of occurrence, nonspecific pleurisy was diagnosed as a complication of the main secondary disease. Pleural effusions develop when CD4 cell counts are low. Morphological diagnostics of pleural lesions is the main research method in the diagnostic algorithm of cases of pleural effusions of unknown etiology against the background of HIV infection.