G. Jautzke et al., EXTRACEREBRAL TOXOPLASMOSIS IN AIDS - HISTOLOGICAL AND IMMUNOHISTOLOGICAL FINDINGS BASED ON 80 AUTOPSY CASES, Pathology research and practice, 189(4), 1993, pp. 428-436
Despite the great amount of literature concerning toxoplasmic encephal
itis in AIDS patients, little is known about extracerebral toxoplasmos
is. Therefore we conducted a study of 80 autopsy cases to estimate the
frequency of extracerebral toxoplasmosis. A control group of SO cases
was completely negative for all markers applied. In 35 of the 80 AIDS
-cases (43.7%), organisms could be detected. In 13 cases (16.2%) there
was an extracerebral toxoplasmosis;4 cases (5%) showed only extracere
bral involvement and in 9 cases (11.2%), extracerebral toxoplasmosis o
ccurred in combination with cerebral manifestations. In 22 cases (27.5
%), only cerebral toxoplasmosis was found. The following organs were i
nvolved: cardiac muscle (15%), lungs (6.2%), liver (5%), pancreas (5%)
, gastrointestinal tract (6.2%), adrenal glands (5%), lymph nodes (5%)
and testis (3.7%). In individual cases further organs, not mentioned
above, were involved. Pseudocysts could be demonstrated within necrose
s and inflammatory foci by conventional staining, whereas trophozoites
became apparent only immunohistologically.