Pulmonary disease in children with AIDS

Abstract

Children with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) may present with recurrent pneumonias or chronic debilitating illness. The chest radiographs of these patients demonstrate homogeneous densities representing staphylococcal or other pyogenic infections. Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia produces a diffuse, symmetric, fine-to-medium, reticulonodular pattern. Lymphocytic interstitial pneumonitis, a disease that is now an index diagnosis of AIDS in children under 13, may appear as a chronic, diffuse, small nodular infiltrate. An increasing number of pediatric AIDS patients will be observed in the future because of the large number of human immunodeficiency virus-infected women who are of childbearing age.