Immunological abnormalities of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and related disorders in patients from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Alteraçöes imunológicas na Síndrome de Imunodeficiência Adquirida em pacientes do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. O perfil imunológico de 15 pacientes com Síndrome de Imunodeficiência Adquirida (AIDS) e 11 com Síndrome de Linfadenipatia Crônica, foram estudados. Os pacientes com AIDS mostraram reduzida percentagem de linfócitos T (CD3) totais e T auxiliares (CD4), aumento relativo no número de linfócito T-supressores (CD8) e uma marcante inversäo na relaçäo T-auxiliares/supressores (CD4/CD8). A resposta linfoproliferativa para PHA, ConA, PPD e PWN, estava diminuída. Foi também observado hipergamaglobulinemia e níveis aumentados de complexos imunes circulantes. Os pacientes com Síndrome de Linfadenopatia Crônica também mostraram importantes alteraçöes imunológicas, mas näo täo intensas como nos de AIDS. Estes dados säo similares aos observados nos Estados Unidos e na Europa (U)

Anti-HIV positivity in Thailand: the usefulness of another ELISA test kit and Western blot as confirmatory tests.

Sera from 47 individuals repeatedly reactive in one screening ELISA system (designated as ELISA-A) for antibodies against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were evaluated by a second ELISA system (designated as ELISA-B) as well as by the Western blot technique. Both ELISA systems and the Western blot were positive in all of the 14 patients with clinical diagnoses of AIDS and AIDS-related persistent generalized lymphadenopathy (PGL). Of the 7 asymptomatic gays whose sera were repeatedly reactive in ELISA-A, 5 were also reactive in ELISA-B and these were the ones with positive Western blot tests. Eight and 17 ELISA-A reactive individuals were uncovered during a survey of 2,699 female prostitutes and 15,210 potential workers for Saudi Arabia respectively. All of these 25 individuals were ELISA-B and Western blot negative, an indication of false-positive reactivity with ELISA-A. Our studies indicate that the prevalence of HIV infection among the general Thai population is still low, and that the specificity of two ELISA test kits for anti-HIV may differ considerably. We concluded that evaluation of test kits should include studies in tropical countries where ecological conditions, climate and background endemic disease patterns are different than in the countries producing the diagnostic systems. Such studies are needed to identify the most sensitive and specific kits for worldwide application. We did discover that concordant positivity of two different ELISA test kits served as a reliable and inexpensive confirmatory test for anti-HIV.