[Progress on study on oral lesions in patients with AIDS]

Abstract

A large number of studies showed that hairy leukoplakia, pseudomembranous candidiasis, Kaposi' sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, linear gingival erythema, necrotizing ulcerative periodontitis and necrotizing ulcerative gingivitis were the most common lesions in patients with HIV infection and AIDS, and their higher prevalence and incidence rates correlated with the falling CD4 counts and higher virus load of the patients. The use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) was associated with decreases in the prevalence of oral diseases. Oral manifestations may represent early signs of AIDS disease and call attention to disease progression. Oral fluid has been shown to possess superior sensitivity for HIV antibody detection as serum.