The AIDS dementia complex: II. Neuropathology

TLDR

The study aimed to define the histopathological substrate of dementia that frequently complicates AIDS. The authors analyzed neuropathological findings in 70 autopsied adult AIDS patients, 46 of whom had clinically overt dementia. Less than 10% of brains were normal, with predominant white‑matter and subcortical lesions that correlated with dementia severity, including diffuse pallor, perivascular infiltrates, foamy macrophages, and multinucleated cells; a third of demented cases showed bland pathology, while over half of nondemented patients had mild changes; vacuolar myelopathy was common in advanced cases, CMV infection was present in ~25% but unrelated to dementia, and the study confirms AIDS dementia complex as a distinct entity caused by direct LAV/HTLV‑III brain infection.

Abstract

Abstract In order to define the histopathological substrate of the dementia that frequently complicates the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), we analyzed the neuropathological findings in 70 autopsied adult AIDS patients, 46 of whom had suffered clinically overt dementia. Less than 10% of the brains were histologically normal. Abnormalities were found predominantly in the white matter and in subcortical structures, with relative sparing of the cortex. Their frequency and severity generally correlated well with the degree and duration of clinical dementia. Most commonly noted was diffuse pallor in the white matter, which in the pathologically milder cases was accompanied by scanty perivascular infiltrates of lymphocytes and brown‐pigmented macrophages, and in the most advanced cases by clusters of foamy macrophages and multinucleated cells associated with multifocal rarefaction of the white matter. However, in nearly one third of the demented cases the histopathological findings were remarkably bland in relation to the severity of clinical dysfunction. In addition, similar mild changes were noted in over one half of the nondemented patients, consistent with subclinical involvement. Vacuolar myelopathy was found in 23 patients and was generally more common and severe in patients with advanced brain pathology. Evidence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection was noted in nearly one quarter of the brains and was associated with a relative abundance of microglial nodules, but correlated neither with the major subcortical neuropathology nor with the clinical dementia, indicating that CMV infection likely represented a second, superimposed process. This study establishes the AIDS dementia complex as a distinct clinical and pathological entity and, together with accumulating virological evidence, suggests that it is caused by direct LAV/HTLV‐III brain infection.