Lyme disease: resolution of a serous retinal detachment and chorioretinal folds after antibiotic therapy.

BACKGROUND: Ocular manifestations of Lyme disease are uncommon. There has not been a documented case of serous retinal detachment and chorioretinal folds because of Lyme disease that have resolved after only antibiotic treatment. METHODS (CASE REPORT): A 69-year-old white man with a history of recent tick bites presented with a gradual decrease in visual acuity in the left eye. Initial visual acuity was 3/200 in the left eye. Examination revealed an inferior, serous, macula-off retinal detachment. Chorioretinal folds were also noted. Lyme screening antibody test (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) was positive and a confirmatory Western blot was immunoglobulin M negative and immunoglobulin G positive. RESULTS: Oral amoxicillin (500 mg 3 times daily for 2 weeks) was given followed by intravenous ceftriaxone (2 g daily for 4 weeks). After two weeks of ceftriaxone, fundus examination and ultrasonography showed complete reattachment of the macula and periphery, and only mild residual chorioretinal folds remained on fluorescein angiogram. CONCLUSION: We suggest that Borrelia burgdorferi infection led to choroidal inflammation with secondary chorioretinal folds and a serous retinal detachment, which resolved with antibiotic therapy alone. This supports the suspicion of an intraocular infection, perhaps involving the choroid, as opposed to a secondary autoimmune reaction.

Poor initial CD4+ recovery with antiretroviral therapy prolongs immune depletion and increases risk for AIDS and non-AIDS diseases.

BACKGROUND: Low CD4+ increases risk for both AIDS- and non-AIDS-related morbidity and mortality. The magnitude of CD4+ recovery early after initial antiretroviral therapy (ART) is important in the ultimate duration of immune depletion. METHODS: We examined CD4+ recovery among 850 participants in the Community Program for Clinical Research on AIDS Flexible Initial Retrovirus Suppressive Therapies study with virologic suppression (ie, achieved an HIV RNA level <400 copies/mL) with 8 months of initial ART and determined subsequent risk for AIDS, non-AIDS diseases (non-AIDS cancers and cardiovascular, end-stage renal, and liver diseases), or death using Cox regression during a median 5-year follow-up. RESULTS: Mean pretreatment CD4+ was 221 cells/microL; 18% (n = 149) had a poor CD4+ recovery (<50 cells/microL) after 8 months of effective ART, resulting in lower CD4+ over 5 years. Older age (hazard ratio 1.34/10 yrs, P = 0.003) and lower screening HIV RNA (hazard ratio 0.65 per log10 copies/mL higher, P = 0.001), but not screening CD4+, were associated with a poor CD4+ recovery. After 8 months of effective ART, 30 patients experienced the composite outcome of AIDS, non-AIDS, or death among participants with a poor CD4+ recovery (rate = 5.8/100 person-years) and 74 patients among those with an adequate recovery (>or=50 cells/muL; rate = 2.7/100 person-years) (adjusted hazard ratio = 2.24, P < 0.001). The risk of this composite outcome associated with a poor CD4+ recovery declined when ART was initiated at higher CD4+ counts (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Impaired immune recovery, despite effective ART, results in longer time spent at low CD4+, thereby increasing risk for a broad category of HIV-related morbidity and mortality conditions.

Amount of lymphatic tissue fibrosis in HIV infection predicts magnitude of HAART-associated change in peripheral CD4 cell count.

The structure of lymphatic tissues is an important component of lymphatic tissue T-cell homeostasis. Collagen deposition in lymphatic tissues (common in HIV infection) disrupts the niche and limits the size of the resident CD4 cell population. In this report we show that a single measurement of lymphatic tissue collagen predicts the magnitude of recovery of the peripheral CD4 cell pool with HAART (P < 0.001). This suggests that collagen-targeted therapies might be of benefit.