HIV infection early diagnosis experience in primary care.

INTRODUCTION: Traditional screening system focus on classic risk factors "lost" a substantial proportion of HIV-infected patients. Several organizations such as CDC or USPS Task Force favour universal screening for HIV infection for good cost-effectiveness profile. In a previous study prevalence of HIV infection in patients attending our infectious diseases department was high (5.4%). OBJECTIVE: To determine prevalence of HIV infection in patients aged 20-55 years in primary care (PC). MATERIAL AND METHODS: A propsective observational study was undertaken between February and June 2013. We performed a screening of HIV infection type "Opt-out" (offering voluntary rejection) in 4 PC centers (32 Physicians) in San Juan-Alicante. Sample size (n=318) for a prevalence of 1% and a confidence level of 97% was calculated. Nevertheless, other PC physician not recruiting patients performed HIV testing according clinical risk factors. RESULTS: HIV testing was offered to 508 patients. Mean age 38.9±10 years (58.5% female). Overall, 430 (83.8%) agreed to participate. Finally, 368 patients (71.7% of total) were tested for HIV. No patient had a positive result (100% ELISA HIV negative). However, following clinical practice, 3 patients were diagnosed of HIV in the same period by non-recruiting physicians. In 2 cases, serology was performed at the patient's request and in one case by constitutional syndrome. The 3 patients were MSM. CONCLUSIONS: 1) In our study, we detected no new cases of HIV infection through universal screening. 2) Our screened population could be lower-risk because of high percentage of women included (58.5%). 3) Performing HIV opt-in screening (clinical practice), we detected 3 cases in the same period, all having HIV risk factors (MSM). 4) These results suggest that opt-out screening should be developed in high-risk populations. It is still to be determined what is the best screening strategy in low-risk populations such as ours.

Coinfection with human herpesvirus 8 is associated with persistent inflammation and immune activation in virologically suppressed HIV-infected patients.

OBJECTIVES: Infection with co-pathogens is one of the postulated factors contributing to persistent inflammation and non-AIDS events in virologically-suppressed HIV-infected patients. We aimed to investigate the relationship of human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8), a vasculotropic virus implicated in the pathogenesis of Kaposi's sarcoma, with inflammation and subclinical atherosclerosis in HIV-infected patients. METHODS: Prospective study including virologically suppressed HIV-infected patients. Several blood biomarkers (highly-sensitive C-reactive protein [hsCRP], tumour necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1, malondialdehyde, plasminogen activator inhibitor [PAI-1], D-dimer, sCD14, sCD163, CD4/CD38/HLA-DR, and CD8/CD38/HLA-DR), serological tests for HHV-8 and the majority of herpesviruses, carotid intima-media thickness, and endothelial function through flow-mediated dilatation of the brachial artery were measured. RESULTS: A total of 136 patients were included, 34.6% of them infected with HHV-8. HHV-8-infected patients were more frequently co-infected with herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) (P<0.001), and less frequently with hepatitis C virus (HCV) (P = 0.045), and tended to be older (P = 0.086). HHV-8-infected patients had higher levels of hsCRP (median [interquartile range], 3.63 [1.32-7.54] vs. 2.08 [0.89-4.11] mg/L, P = 0.009), CD4/CD38/HLA-DR (7.67% [4.10-11.86]% vs. 3.86% [2.51-7.42]%, P = 0.035) and CD8/CD38/HLA-DR (8.02% [4.98-14.09]% vs. 5.02% [3.66-6.96]%, P = 0.018). After adjustment for the traditional cardiovascular risk factors, HCV and HSV-2 infection, the associations remained significant: adjusted difference between HHV-8 positive and negative patients (95% confidence interval) for hsCRP, 74.19% (16.65-160.13)%; for CD4/CD38/HLA-DR, 89.65% (14.34-214.87)%; and for CD8/CD38/HLA-DR, 58.41% (12.30-123.22)%. Flow-mediated dilatation and total carotid intima-media thickness were not different according to HHV-8 serostatus. CONCLUSION: In virologically suppressed HIV-infected patients, coinfection with HHV-8 is associated with increased inflammation and immune activation. This might contribute to increase the risk of non-AIDS events, including accelerated atherosclerotic disease.

Increased carotid intima-media thickness associated with antibody responses to varicella-zoster virus and cytomegalovirus in HIV-infected patients.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the relationship of the Herpesviridiae with inflammation and subclinical atherosclerosis in HIV-infected patients. METHODS: Prospective study including virologically suppressed HIV-infected patients. IgG antibodies against herpesviruses, carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT), endothelial function through flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) of the brachial artery, and blood atherosclerosis biomarkers (hsCRP, TNF-α, IL-6, MCP-1, MDA, sCD14, sCD163, VCAM-1, ICAM-1, D-dimer, and PAI-1) were measured. RESULTS: 136 patients with HIV viral load <200 copies/ml were included. 93.4% patients were infected with herpes simplex virus type-1, 55.9% with herpes simplex virus type-2, 97.1% with varicella-zoster virus, 65.4% with human herpesvirus-6, 91.2% with cytomegalovirus, and 99.3% with Epstein-Barr virus. Previous AIDS diagnosis was associated with higher cytomegalovirus IgG titers (23,000 vs 17,000 AU, P = 0.011) and higher varicella-zoster virus IgG titers (3.19 vs 2.88 AU, P = 0.047), and there was a positive correlation of the Framingham risk score with IgG levels against cytomegalovirus (Spearman's Rho 0.216, P = 0.016) and Herpes simplex virus-2 (Spearman's Rho 0.293, P = 0.001). IgG antibodies against cytomegalovirus correlated in adjusted analysis with the cIMT (P = 0.030). High seropositivity for varicella-zoster virus (OR 2.91, 95% CI 1.05-8.01, P = 0.039), and for cytomegalovirus (OR 3.79, 95% CI 1.20-11.97, P = 0.023) were predictors for the highest quartile of the cIMT in adjusted analyses. PAI-1 levels were independently associated with cytomegalovirus IgG titers (P = 0.041), IL-6 and ICAM-1 levels with varicella-zoster virus IgG (P = 0.046 and P = 0.035 respectively), and hsCRP levels with Herpes simplex virus-2 IgG (P = 0.035). CONCLUSION: In virologically suppressed HIV-infected patients, antibody responses against herpesviruses are associated with subclinical atherosclerosis, and with increased inflammation and coagulation biomarkers.

Predictors of pneumococcal co-infection for patients with pandemic (H1N1) 2009.

We conducted a systematic investigation of pneumococcal co-infection in patients with a diagnosis of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 and any risk factor for complications or with severity criteria. We found 14% prevalence, with one third of patients having nonpneumonic infections. A severity assessment score >1 and high C-reactive protein levels were predictors of pneumococcal co-infection.

Comparison of combined nose-throat swabs with nasopharyngeal aspirates for detection of pandemic influenza A/H1N1 2009 virus by real-time reverse transcriptase PCR.

Data assessing the diagnostic accuracies of use of different respiratory samples for the detection of the novel influenza A/H1N1 2009 virus by molecular methods are lacking. The objective of this study was to compare the sensitivity of combined nose and throat swabs (CNTS) with that of nasopharyngeal aspirates (NPA). This was a prospective study of adults and children with suspected influenza. Real-time reverse transcriptase PCR testing was used for the virological diagnosis. Of the 2,473 patients included, 264 with paired CNTS and NPA were randomly selected. Novel influenza A/H1N1 virus was identified in at least one sample for 115 (43.6%) patients, the majority of them young adults. In 109 patients (94.8%) the virus was identified in the CNTS, and in 98 (85.2%) it was identified in the NPA (P = 0.02). In 93 patients (80.1%), the virus was identified in both specimens. Spearman's rho correlation coefficient between the two methods was 0.82 (P < 0.001). There were no significant differences in accuracy between the specimens when patients were stratified according to demographic or clinical characteristics except in the case of women, in whom the sensitivity of CNTS was higher (P = 0.01). The combination of CNTS and NPA had a significantly higher sensitivity in identifying the virus than did each method alone (P = 0.02 for the comparison of the combination of both sampling methods with CNTS, and P < 0.001 for the comparison with NPA). We conclude that in patients with the novel influenza A/H1N1 virus, the diagnostic yield of CNTS is higher than that of NPA. The combination of both sampling methods increases the likelihood of diagnosing the virus.