Oral lesions in Thai heterosexual AIDS patients: a preliminary study

Abstract

Objective: To study the types of oral lesions in Thai heterosexual AIDS patients.

Design: Cross-sectional study and single centre.

Setting: Medical ward of the Prince of Songkla University Hospital, Thailand, from June 1994 to May 1995.

Subjects: Heterosexual AIDS patients who had been admitted because of opportunistic infections and/or neoplasms.

Main outcome measures: Types of oral lesions, opportunistic systemic diseases present and drugs in use, as well as the lymphocyte count, were recorded in each patient. Mycological investigations by the oral rinse technique were also performed.

Results: 41 patients were examined (32 male, 9 female; aged 19-53 years, median 29 years). Oral lesions were found in 35 (85%) patients as follows: oral candidiasis (31), hairy leukoplakia (3), aphthous ulcer (3), linear gingival erythema (2), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (2) and histoplasmosis (2). CANDIDA ALBICANS: was isolated in 31 patients. There was correlation between the clinical signs of oral candidiasis and the colony-forming units of Candida (Mann-Whitney U test; two-tailed P = 0.0007).

Conclusions: Oral candidiasis was the most common lesion. It is of interest that non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was the only neoplasm detected. We conclude that oral lesions among Thai heterosexual AIDS patients may differ from those in other countries.