A 29-year-old man with a positive test for HIV and a reticulonodular pulmonary infiltrate
Article Abstract:
The case of a 29-year-old man who was hospitalized four times for worsening cough and fever is discussed. He had engaged in bisexual activity for 10 years and had been treated for several sexually-transmitted diseases. Two years before his last hospital admission he had tested positive for HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus which causes AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). During the 19 months before his death, this patient suffered from many complications of AIDS. Soon after the positive test for HIV, he developed oral thrush, or candidiasis (a mouth infection), and a gastric ulcer. His heart was enlarged and he developed an episode of acute renal (kidney) failure. Weakness, diarrhea and fever became major problems as the disease progressed. He used the medications pentamidine and zidovudine (AZT) intermittently. Various features of this case were unusual and the physicians were not certain of all the disease processes involved. They concluded after all laboratory and diagnostic procedures had been completed that in addition to AIDS, the patient may have had interstitial pneumonitis (lung inflammation) due to Pneumocystis carinii infection, pulmonary Kaposi's sarcoma (a form of cancer that has been associated with the immunodeficiency of AIDS), and/or infection with a form of bacteria responsible for tuberculosis, Mycobacterium avium. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: The New England Journal of Medicine
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0028-4793
Year: 1990
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A 58-year-old man with cavitary lung disease
Article Abstract:
A 58-year-old man complaining of fever, chills, night sweats, cough, weight loss, chest pain and breathing difficulties was admitted to the hospital. Chest X-rays revealed a dense area in the upper part of the lungs and the development of abnormal cavities in the lung tissue. A tuberculosis infection was suspected with the possibility of a coexisting lung cancer. On biopsy, the cancer was confirmed, but the concurrent infection was due to the bacteria mycobacterium xenopi and not the very similar tuberculosis. The patient was given a course of chemotherapy to treat the cancer and antibiotic therapy specific for the bacterial infection. After six months of therapy, the patient's X-rays showed some improvement.
Publication Name: The New England Journal of Medicine
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0028-4793
Year: 1989
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