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We report the case histories of 7 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) who had a diagnosis of Castleman disease. All 6 patients who were treated responded to chemotherapy; immune reconstitution was observed in 5 patients, but it did not prevent relapse of Castleman disease. However, the mean duration of survival observed in this series (48 months) was most probably due to immune reconstitution resulting from receipt of HAART, which reduced the mortality associated with HIV disease.

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Background: The role of Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) in skin and soft-tissue infections is not clear. Objective: Our purpose was to determine the prevalence of PVL gene carriage among Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from primary and secondary skin abscesses. Methods: A prospective study was conducted. From July 2003 to June 2008, S. aureus isolates from skin abscesses were screened for the PVL genes. The abscesses were considered primary if they occurred on previously healthy skin and secondary in all other cases. Results: Fifty-seven patients presenting with S. aureus skin abscesses were included in the study. The PVL genes were detected in 40 (70%) of the 57 S. aureus isolates. Thirty-eight (92.7%) of the 41 primary skin abscesses were due to PVL-positive strains, compared to only 2 (12.5%) of the 16 secondary skin abscesses (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Primary skin abscesses are mainly caused by PVL-positive S. aureus strains.

Osteonecrosis appears to be a complication of both HIV infection and cART.

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As well as intraspecific heterogeneity, intragenomic heterogeneity between 16S rRNA gene copies has been described for a range of bacteria. Due to the wide use of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis for taxonomy, identification and metagenomics, evaluating the extent of these heterogeneities in natural populations is an essential prerequisite. We investigated inter-and intragenomic 16S rRNA gene heterogeneity of the variable region V3 in a population of 149 clinical isolates of Veillonella spp. of human origin and in 13 type or reference Veillonella strains using PCR-temporal temperature gel electrophoresis (TTGE). 16S rRNA gene diversity was high in the studied population, as 45 different banding patterns were observed. Intragenomic heterogeneity was demonstrated for 110 (74 %) isolates and 8 (61.5 %) type or reference strains displaying two or three different gene copies. Polymorphic nucleotide positions accounted for 0.5-2.5 % of the sequence and were scattered in helices H16 and H17 of the rRNA molecule. Some of them changed the secondary structure of H17. Phylotaxonomic structure of the population based on the single-copy housekeeping gene rpoB was compared with TTGE patterns. The intragenomic V3 heterogeneity, as well as recombination events between strains or isolates of different rpoB clades, impaired the 16S rRNA-based identification for some Veillonella species. Such approaches should be conducted in other bacterial populations to optimize the interpretation of 16S rRNA gene sequences in taxonomy and/or diversity studies.