A cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of isosporiasis and its clinical and laboratory pattern in Venezuelan patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (n ‫ס‬ 397). At enrollment, they underwent a thorough clinical history and physical examination, and provided stool specimens for the identification of Isospora belli and other parasites. Isospora belli was identified in 56 subjects (14%) and diarrhea, either acute or chronic, was present in 98% of these cases (P < 0.001). Eosinophilia was strongly associated with isosporiasis (P ‫ס‬ 0.01). It was also found that the presence of eosinophilia was more common in I. belli-infected patients without weight loss (P < 0.001). Twenty-six (81.25%) subjects with I. belli infection had CD4 + cell counts < 200 cells/mm 3 (P ‫ס‬ 0.03). In addition, the data and its description shows the association to be < 100 cells/mm 3 . This infection seems to be seasonal because the recovery of oocysts occurred mainly in months with significant rainfall. In fact, isosporiasis should be suspected in HIV-infected patients from tropical countries with diarrhea, weight loss, eosinophilia, and low CD4 + cell counts.

A cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of cryptosporidiosis and its clinical and laboratory pattern in Venezuelan HIV-infected patients (N = 397). At enrollment, they underwent thorough clinical history and physical examination and provided stool specimens for the identification of Cryptosporidium sp. and other parasites. Cryptosporidium sp. was identified in 59 subjects (15%). This infection was strongly associated with acute and chronic diarrhea, weight loss, CD4(+) counts below 100 cells/mm(3), older age in patients with leukopenia, and more than 5 stools per day when CD4(+) counts were below 100 cells/mm(3). In addition, patients with Cryptosporidium infection were less likely to be coinfected with Isospora belli (OR = 0.05, P = 0.001). In fact, results of the current study confirm the worldwide importance of cryptosporidiosis as a clinically significant opportunistic infection associated with an advanced stage of immunosuppression.

A cross sectional survey was conducted to determine the association between enteric parasites and diarrhoea in HIV-infected adults in Caracas. Three hundred and four patients were evaluated: 104 had acute diarrhoea, 113 chronic diarrhoea and 87 were controls. Isopora belli infection was associated with acute (P = 0.022) and chronic diarrhoea (P = 0.003), Entamoeba histolytica/dispar infection was also associated with both acute (P = 0.015) and chronic diarrhoea (P = 0.017). Strongyloides stercoralis (P = 0.003), and Cryptosporidium parvum (P = 0.017) infections were associated mainly with chronic episodes. Weight loss (P< 0.001), a non-infectious factor investigated, was significantly associated with diarrhoea. Eosinophilia, a laboratory parameter studied, was found to be associated with strongyloidiasis (P = 0.001), giardiasis (P = 0.001) and isoporiasis (P = 0.003). In summary, the presence of enteric parasites in HIV-infected patients from tropical urban areas with diarrhoea, with or without significant weight loss, must be considered. Similarly, eosinophilia might suggest parasitic infection in these patients.

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Persistent human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is an essential factor of cervical cancer. This study evaluated the analytical performance of restriction fragment length polymorphism polymerase chain reaction (PCR-RFLP) assay compared to PapilloCheck® microarray to identify human papilloma virus (HPV) in cervical cells. Three hundred and twenty-five women were analyzed. One sample was used for conventional cytology and another sample was collected using BD SurePath™ kit for HPV tests. Eighty samples (24.6%) were positive for HPV gene by PCR-Multiplex and were then submitted to PCR-RFLP and PapilloCheck® microarray. There was a genotyping agreement in 71.25% (57/80) on at least one HPV type between PCR-RFLP and PapilloCheck® microarray. In 22 samples (27.5%), the results were discordant and those samples were additionally analyzed by DNA sequencing. HPV 16 was the most prevalent HPV type found in both methods, followed by HPVs 53, 68, 18, 39, and 66 using PCR-RFLP analysis, and HPVs 39, 53, 68, 56, 31, and 66 using PapilloCheck® microarray. In the present study, a perfect agreement using Cohen's kappa (κ) was found in HPV 33 and 58 (κ=1), very good for HPV 51, and good for types 16, 18, 53, 59, 66, 68, 70, and 73. PCR-RFLP analysis identified only 25% (20/80) HPV coinfection, and PapilloCheck® microarray found 62.5% (50/80). Our Cohen's kappa results indicate that our in-house HPV genotyping testing (PCR-RFLP analysis) could be applied as a primary HPV test screening, especially in low income countries. If multiple HPV types are found in this primary test, a more descriptive test, such as PapilloCheck® microarray, could be performed.