ENTERIC PREVALENCE OF ADENOVIRUS IN HUMAN-IMMUNODEFICIENCY-VIRUS SEROPOSITIVE PATIENTS

To evaluate the prevalence of adenovirus strains in human immunodefici ency virus (HIV)-positive patients and to investigate their possible r ole in the onset of diarrhea, a total of 103 stools from HIV-seroposit ive patients at various stages of infection and 200 stools from sex an d age crossmatched control subjects were examined. Adenovirus prevalen ce was measured by ELISA as well as conventional and rapid cell cultur e techniques. Results were compared between patients suffering from di arrhea and those without diarrhea. Adenovirus prevalence was statistic ally greater in HIV-seropositive cases than controls (8.7%, 2.5%, resp ectively). No significant difference was found between HIV-positive pa tients with diarrhea and those without gastrointestinal complications (P > 0.05). However, a significant difference in adenovirus prevalence was found between HIV-positive patients with diarrhea and control sub jects with diarrhea (P = 0.02). Although viral prevalence varied with the different stages of HIV infection, differences were not statistica lly significant. In conclusion, although current opinion considers ade noviruses to be no more than opportunistic pathogens, the results of t his large-scale study do not exclude a potential reactivation of laten t adenovirus in HIV infection and suggest that further effort should b e directed to elucidating such a mechanism if it exists as well as inv estigating the specific role of certain adenovirus serotypes in provok ing diarrhea during later stages of HIV infection. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss , Inc.