[Infectious endocarditis in parenteral drug addicts: study of 57 cases]. / Endocarditis infecciosa en adictos a drogas por vía parenteral: estudio de 57 casos.

We present 57 cases of infectious endocarditis (IE) in 51 parenterally drug addicts (PDA) admitted at the Internal Medicine Service of the Hospital Clínico of Valencia between January ist, 1988 and January 15th, 1992. The disease affected young patients, 84% of them being HIV-1+ and 86% presenting CD4+ lymphocytes lower than 200 cells/mm3. Fever was the most constant symptom, with radiological disorders and presence of vegetations by echocardiogram in 65% and 53% of episodes, respectively, and affectation of the tricuspid valve in 59% of patients. The diagnosis of endocarditis was definitive in 51% of cases, possible in 15% and probable in 22%, being cardiac failure the most severe complication, present in 23% of episodes. The detection of significant valve regurgitation in patients with IE and without developing cardiac failure is not predictive of future complications, nor its absence identifies patients with a favourable prognosis. Staphylococcus aureus was the most frequently isolated germ (48%), being methicillin-resistant in 15% of cases and with a slower response to the treatment with vancomycin than the methicillin-sensitive. Five patients died, all of them with CD4+ lower than 50 cells/mm3, which may have a predictive value in the follow-up of these patients.

[Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia]. / La neumonía por Pneumocystis carinii.

We present twelve cases of Pneumocystis Carinii Pneumonia (PCP) hospitalized at the Internal Medicine Service of the Hospital Clínico de Valencia between 1989 and 1990. All patients were infected by HIV-1, with ages between 25 and 32 years, with circulating CD4 lymphocytes lower than 25% or 200 cells per cubic millimeter and with positive p24 antigen. Ten of them were parenterally drug addicts and two of them, homosexuals. Diagnosis was made by fibrobronchoscopy (FB) with bronchoaspiration (BAS) and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), or sputum induced by physiological serum aerosol at three per cent, using in both cases blue tinction with toluidine 0 of the samples obtained. Given the foreseeable increase of this disease in our country, we stress the risk of a potential change in its clinical spectrum, affecting new population groups, mainly the elderly, as well as the development of new early diagnosis techniques and the emergence of new treatments, including corticotherapy.

[Generalized persistent lymphadenopathy syndrome in parenteral drug addicts. Lymph node biopsy study of 41 patients]. / Síndrome de la linfoadenopatía persistente generalizada en adictos a drogas por vía parenteral. Estudio biópsico ganglionar de 41 pacientes.

Of a total of 41 VIH positive patients, parenteral drug addicts, with persistent generalized lymphadenopathy syndrome, we performed 43 lymph-node biopsies. In two sequential biopsies, 2 and 12 months respectively after the first biopsy, were carried-out. After a clinical follow-up (ranging between 4-28 months) 12 patients (24.3%) were qualified as SIDA cases according to CDC-1987 criteria. Lymph-node biopsy was of diagnostic or prognostic value in 16.27% and in 6.97% respectively. Upon comparing histological types and peripheral lymphocyte subsets it was demonstrated how the forms of major morphological deterioration tend to associate with a lower number of OKT4+ lymphocytes and a lower relation OKT4+/OKT8+.