ORAL MANIFESTATIONS OF HIV INFECTED PATIENTS REGARDING CD4 POSITIVE LYMPHOCYTE COUNTS

As oral lesions could be one of the first clinical signs in HIV infected patients
and an indicator of CD4+ decrease, this study was aimed to determine the prevalence of oral soft tissue
lesions and their relationship with CD4+ lymphocyte in HIV infected patients.
Materials & Methods: In this analytical-cross-sectional study performed on subjects attending to
Imam Khomeyni and Masih Daneshvari hospitals of Tehran, 52 patients with at least 6 months of
infection were evaluated. Oral lesions were evaluated according to ECC (European Commision
Clearinghouse) and CD4 counts were measured by flow cytometry method. The data were analyzed
using Mann Whitney test.
Results: Out of 52 evaluated patients, 44 males (84.6%) and 8 females (15.4%) with mean age of
34±7.77 were participated. 32(61.5%) patients were under HAART, 15(28.8%) used anti tuberculosis
medicines and 5 (9.6%) patients received both above mentioned treatment. In this study the most
common oral lesions were erythematous Candidiasis (40.4%), angular cheilitis (25%) and rampant
caries (23.1%). In the present study, 15 (28.8%) patients had no immunosuppression, 20 (38.5%) and
17 (32.7%) patients had moderate and sever immunosuppression, respectively. In the current study,
angular cheilitis were accompanied with sever immunosuppression and rampant caries were related to
the mild immunosuppresion.
Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, except fungal infections including oral
erythematous and pseudo membranous candidiasis, other oral manifesation of patients with AIDS or
HIV infected patients had no relationship with CD4 counts. However further study in other population
is recommended