EVOLUTION OF HIV-POSITIVE PATIENTS ON DIA LYSIS

We studied the clinical course of seven HIV seropositives patients und ergoing haemodialysis, of whom two were infected previously and five w ere infected by blood transfusion. All of them received zidovudine the rapy when CD4+ cell count were below 500 per cubic millimeter. Five pa tients developed AIDS (diagnosis was stablished according to the CD4cell count below 200 per cubic millimeter) after a mean follow-up of 4 4 months (range, 14 to 69). Two of them died from AIDS after 54 months follow-up; the remainder showed a decrease in CD4+ cell count (< 200 per cubic millimeter) without symptoms of the disease. The average tim e pre AIDS/AIDS was: 14/9, 48/20, 0/10 months respectively. Two patien ts remains without AIDS after 69 months follow-up. We concluded that H IV infection in our haemodialysis patiets follow a better clinical cou rse as compared with previous studies and perhaps similar to HIV (+) n on uremic sublets.