This is a report on the clinical courses and pathological findings in two gay male patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) infected in Japan.
Case 1. A 39 year-old Japanese homosexual male was diagnosed as amebic dysentery complicated with liver abscess on admission. He was placed on Metronidazole with complete relief. Serological tests was positive for AIDS. On second admission, he was found to have pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) and cytomegalo-viral uveitis. Administration of Pentamidine was partially effective, however the therapy with Azidothimidine was discontinued by bone marrow suppression. On his third admission, he suffered from cryptococcal meningitis and therapy-resistant fungusemia. Finally he died of recurrent pneumonia regardless of appropriate therapies. Autopsy proved extended cryptococ cal infection in the brain, meninx, lungs, liver and kidney, and cytomegalo-infection in the lungs, liver and kidney. Furthermore, atypical mycobacteriosis was found in the lymphnodes. There was no active findings compatible with PCP.
Case 2. A 44 year-old Japanese homosexual male was admitted with oral candidiasis and diagnosed as AIDS related complex. He suffered from pneumonia with marked improvement on sulfamethoxazole-Trimethoprim. On his sceond admission, he developed diarrhea and was found to be infected with Giardia lamblia. In addition, cytomegalo-viral infection damaged his eye sight. He died of pneumonia and meningitis shortly there after. Autopsy proved a cytomegalo-viral infection in the lung and colon, old lesions possibly caused by PCP in the lungs, and suppurative meningitis in the meninx.
These experiences confirm that AIDS patients can be exposed to several opportunistic infections at the same time in the multiple organs. Furthermore, it is suggested that homosexual patients with AIDS may have unique opportunistic infections such as amebic dysentery or Giardia lamblia unlike other AIDS patients related to hemophilia.