HBV strains harbouring resistance mutations can comprise the major population of HBV quasispecies in treatment-naive patients. In Brazil, there is a very low frequency of untreated patients who are infected with these strains. These findings suggest that the spread and natural selection of drug-resistant HBV is an uncommon event and/or most of these strains remain unstable in the absence of NA selective pressure.
Tuberculous brain abscess must be considered in the differential diagnosis of intracranial mass in AIDS patients. A careful epidemiological, clinical and laboratory evaluation may guide a diagnostic suspicion. Surgery combined with specific anti-tuberculosis treatment seems to determine a good outcome.
Resistance-associated variants (RAVs) represent a challenge to the success of new HCV therapies. The aim of this study was to describe the prevalence of naturally occurring NS5B RAVs in Brazilian direct acting antivirals (DAA)-naïve patients infected with HCV genotype 1, or co-infected with HIV. Patient enrollment and sample collection were performed between 2011 and 2013. Using Sanger-based sequencing, 244 sequences were obtained. RAVs detected in HCV-1a sequences were V321A (1.6 %), M414V (1.3 %), A421V (21.4-23.7 %), A421G (1.3 %) and Y448H (1.3 %); and in HCV-1b sequences were L159F (16.1 %), C316N (7.1-16.3 %) and A421V (3.2-6.3 %). Understanding the real RAVs scenario in patients is fundamental to establishing the most effective therapeutic strategy and in minimizing the risks for their selection.
Neurological complications represent one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality in patients with HIV/AIDS. However, peripheral neuropathy comprises only 5% to 20% of the total neurological complications and facial nerve palsy, especially when it is bilateral, is a less common manifestation. Peripheral facial palsy has been considered as a possible neurological complication of the early stage of HIV infection but the number of reported cases in the literature is limited. Histological findings of nervous tissue in peripheral facial palsy at an early stage of HIV infection include a degenerative and not suppurative inflammatory process, but its etiology remains obscure. Peripheral facial palsy in the late stage of HIV infection is characterized by an advanced immunological deficit and generally it is secondary to an opportunistic infection of the CNS, such as neurotoxoplasmosis and lymphoma. However, this peripheral attack of the facial nerve is not very common at this late stage of HIV infection. Bilateral peripheral facial palsy as a complication of non-Hodgkin s lymphoma is considered an extremely rare entity. There are no published reports of bilateral peripheral facial palsy secondary to lymphomas or other neoplasms of the CNS in immunosuppressed patients. Non-Hodgkin s lymphoma (NHL) has been considered a late and relatively common manifestation of HIV infection, but an exact cause for the higher incidence of this malignant neoplasm in HIV/AIDS patients is still uncertain.
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