AIDS-ASSOCIATED RENAL TUBERCULOSIS

In order to study the prevalence and the clinical features of renal tu berculosis associated with AIDS, we studied the renal tissue of the ne cropsies made in 46 AIDS patients under light microscopy. We found ren al tuberculous granuloma in 11 (23%) patients (in 3 without previous d iagnosis of renal or extrarenal tuberculosis) and only 4 of them prese nted moderate hematuria or pyuria sterile. As subclinical renal tuberc ulosis was frequent in this group of AIDS patients, the urine culture for Mycobacterium tuberculosis may be useful for diagnosing tuberculos is in AIDS patients.