Epidemiology of HIV-1 subtypes in an urban area of northern Italy.

The distribution of the different subtypes of HIV varies from one region of the world to another. Subtype B is predominant in Europe and the USA, but there has been a gradual increase in non-B subtypes as a result of migration from regions where they are endemic, and this may have important implications for the control of HIV-1. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of HIV-1 subtypes in an urban area of northern Italy in the period 1997-2008. Forty-nine (12.2%; 95% CI, 9.00-15.40) of 401 patients investigated carried a non-B subtype, the prevalence of which was 7.7% (95% CI, 4.96-10.44) among native Italians and 55.3% (95% CI, 39.49-71.11) among non-Italians, 1.6% (95% CI, 0.00-3.81) among ex-intravenous drug addicts, 7.6% (95% CI, 1.21-13.99) among homosexual/bisexual men and 20.5% (95% CI, 14.83-26.17) among heterosexuals, 6.8% (95% CI, 3.37-10.23) among Italians infected as a result of sexual contacts in Italy, and 55.0% (95% CI, 33.20-76.80) among Italians infected abroad or by foreign partners. Overall prevalence increased from 2.9% (95% CI, 0.00-6.11) before 1993 to 23.0% (95% CI, 16.31-29.69) in the period 2001-2008. The results demonstrate that there has been an increase in non-B subtypes (especially sexually transmitted infections), particularly among patients infected abroad or by foreign partners.

Clinical application of digital indocyanine green angiography in choroidal neurofibromatosis.

Indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) was used to investigate 2 cases of type 1 systemic neurofibromatosis that had appeared at birth with café-au-lait skin spots, gradually developing into multiple cutaneous neurofibromas. Patients underwent periodical visual acuity examinations, the fundus was checked and fluorescein angiography (FA) was done; all findings appeared extremely stable. In 1995 these 2 patients underwent ICGA to check for pathological choroidal involvement. In both cases the initial examination stages showed multiple extensive areas of hypofluorescence, their morphology and extension coinciding with the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) lesions shown by FA and by ophthalmoscopic examination. In later stages the hypofluorescent areas became smaller, generally shrinking to small isolated dots in the middle of the original areas. These initially hypofluorescent areas appeared to be due to slow focal choroidal filling caused by deep alterations to the walls of the choroidal arterioles induced by the disease. Chronic hypoperfusion of the choriocapillaris results in impairment of the overlying RPE, causing it to atrophy. The late hypofluorescent areas could be either persistent nonperfused lobules of choriocapillaris or neurofibromatose choroidal nodules. ICGA examination showed that the FA lesions described in the literature as choroidal nodules are in fact alterations to the RPE secondary to areas of hypoperfusion in the choriocapillaris.