Oral Lesions in AIDS/HIV+ Patients before HAART

1Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology, Beijing, China, 2Beijing Youan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

Objective: To investigate the oral lesions present in AIDS/HIV+ patients before highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) was given.

Method: There were 266 patients in our study, all of them hadn't accepted any therapy before and 96.2% of whom were infected by blood transmission. 48.9% (130/266) of the patients were male and 51.1%(136/266) were female, age ranged from 16 to 64 (mean 44.45±7.82). The control group included 265 HIV-negative individuals, who were age and sex were matched. Diagnosis was made according to physical examination and laboratory examinations.

Results: 77.1% of the patients had oral lesions, which was significantly higher than 27.9% of the control group. The prevalence of oral candidiasis (OC) was 15% (40/266), gingival linear erythema 0.8% (3/266), recurrent oral ulcer (ROU) 14.3% (38/266), oral hairy leukoplakia (OHL) 6% (16/266), idiopathic ulcer 0.4% (1/266), herpes-simplex 5.3% (14/266), herpes zoster 1.5% (4/266), hyperpigmentation 13.5% (36/266), chronic cheilitis 7.9% (21/266), leukoedema 13.2% (35/266), leukokeratosis 10.9% (29/266), smoking patch 4.9% (13/253), and bloody vesicle 7.5% (20/266), lichen planus 4.1% (11/266), non Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), Kaposi' sarcoma and ulceronecrotic periodontal diseases 0%. The prevalence of OC, ROU, herpes-simplex, OHL, hyperpigmentation, leukoedema, leukokeratosis, smoking patch, lichen planus, bloody vesicles were significantly higher than those in control group. The prevalence of OC and OHL was increased as the CD4+ decreased. The latter was more closely correlated with CD4+ count. In our study, all OHL appeared in the patients infected by blood transmission and didn't show significant difference between sexes.

Conclusion: AIDS/HIV+ patients may have more oral lesions under the condition that HAART is not given. OC and OHL may indicate the progression of the disease.