AIDS Dementia Complex: Report of an Autopsy Case

ABSTRACT

We report a 33-year-old man with AIDS dementia complex, which is one of the most common neurologic complica-tion of HIV-1 infection. The man presented with mild psychomotor slowing and episodic loss of consciousness about 5 years after the detection of the HIV-1 infection. His symptoms included forgetfulness, concentration difficulties, apathy, and psychomotor retardation which progressed rapidly evolving into the characteristic features of terminal HIV-1-asso-ciated dementia complex, such as severe dementia, mutism, incontinence, and paraparesis before death. Brain MRIrevealed diffuse confluent high signal intensity lesions in the subcortical white matter on the T2 weighted image. HIV encephalitis (AIDS dementia complex) was confirmed by a brain autopsy.