Article Text
Abstract
Rapidly progressive encephalopathy in an HIV-positive patient presents a major diagnostic and management challenge. CD8+ encephalitis is a severe but treatable form of HIV-related acute encephalopathy, characterised by diffuse perivascular and intraparenchymal CD8+ lymphocytic infiltration. It can occur in patients who are apparently stable on antiretroviral treatment and probably results from viral escape into the central nervous system. Treatment, including high-dose corticosteroids, can give an excellent neurological outcome, even in people with severe encephalopathy and a very poor initial neurological status. We report a woman with CD8+ encephalitis, with a normal CD4 count and undetectable serum viral load, who made a good recovery despite the severity of her presentation.
- Confusion
- CD8+ encephalitis
- HIV
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Footnotes
Twitter Follow Angeliki Zarkali at @Angelika_Za
Contributors Clinical care was provided by AZ, NG, RM, LJ, DK and OS. AZ, NG and OS acquired the clinical data and wrote the manuscript and revised the manuscript for critical content. AM interpreted histology and created relevant figure. ST and RJ interpreted imaging and created relevant figure. All authors have reviewed and approved the manuscript.
Funding UCLH Biomedical Research Centre.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed. This paper was reviewed by Hadi Manji, London, UK.