Central nervous system AIDS--related diseases.

Abstract

The neurological complications of HIV contribute importantly to patient morbidity and mortality. Major common AIDS-related CNS diseases are ADC, metabolic encephalopaties, CMV encephalitis, TE, PCNSL, PML, criptococcal meningitis, and aseptic meningitis. After HAART, declines in incidence and improved outcome of several HIV-1 related opportunistic infections, including CNS-ADIs have been reported. The differential diagnosis of CNS complications of AIDS is routinely established according to temporal evolution, clinical data, and neuroradiological imaging. Combining neuroradiological imaging with the new CSF PCR tests may improve the diagnostic accuracy of some CNS-ADIs without the need of stereotactic brain biopsy, that may become limited to the situations where data remain conflicting.