ABSTRACT
The US findings of 125 patients with the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) were retrospectively reviewed in order to assess the effective role of the method in the study of this disease. US findings are reported organ by organ: a few of them appear to be exclusively related to HIV infection (opportunistic infections and lymphomas), while most of them are due to other related conditions (chronic hepatopathy). As AIDS patients undergo many repeated tests, US has proven to be a satisfactory technique for the follow-up, avoiding more expensive, more invasive and complex examinations. US has proven to be a valuable technique in the screening of HIV infections for it is easily available, repeatable and cheap; moreover, US always exhibited high sensitivity. The analysis of the data herein reported stresses the value of US in the detection of unsuspected lesions. Indeed, in some patients (5 cases of unsuspected lymphomas, 4 of which with hepatic and 1 with gastric localization) US findings determined a change in diagnosis from HIV positivity to AIDS.
