RESUMO
The clinical histories of 12 AIDS patients whose histoplasmosis diagnosis has been confirmed by histopathological studies were reviewed aimed at knowing the main clinical and microbiological aspects of the disseminated progressive histoplasmosis. In every case it appeared as a febrile and waste disease with an elevated hepatomegaly frequency and generalized adenopathies. More than 50% of the patients had anemia and an accelerated erythrocyte sedimentation. The chest X-ray showed pulmonary lesions in 50% of the patients, whereas, the abdominal ultrasound allowed to observe hepatomegaly and splenomegaly in 58.3 and 41.6% of the patients, respectively. A low sensitivity was found in the culture of different clinical specimens as well as in the antibody detection techniques. It is discussed the need to improve tha laboratory diagnosis methods, particularly those which make possible the antigen detection in a fast and specific way.