HIV infection in patients of liver cirrhosis
Amarapurkar, D.N.; Kumar, A.; Murti, P.; Kalro, R.H.; Desai, H.G.
Indian Journal of Medical Research 95: 171-172
1992
ISSN/ISBN: 0019-5340 PMID: 1398803 Document Number: 325411
Health workers took blood examples from 130 9-70 year old patients with liver cirrhosis admitted to the Department of Gastroenterology at BYL Nair Hospital in Bombay, India, between January 1990 and February 1992. Since patients with liver cirrhosis tend to undergo many blood transfusions in emergency situations, because of vomiting blood, researchers wanted to determine whether an association exists between HIV infection and liver cirrhosis. Laboratory personnel tested the samples for anti-HIV antibodies using first the ELISA and then confirming positive samples with the Western Blot (WB) test. The ELISA revealed 11 positive samples (5 were WB positive; 4 were WB negative, and 2 had indeterminate results) and the WB confirmed 5 HIV positive cases (all being 20 to 50 year old males). Thus, the HIV seroprevalence was 3.8% among the liver cirrhosis cases. 1 HIV-positive patient had earlier engaged in homosexual intercourse, 2 others had had multiple sexual partners. 4 HIV=positive patients had chronic alcoholism. 1 HIV-positive patient suffered from extensive intra abdominal tuberculosis and died during his hospital stay. None of the HIV-positive patients had earlier undergone a blood transfusion. The researchers called for more studies to confirm a relationship between HIV infection and liver cirrhosis with or without alcoholism.