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Background Prevalence and factors associated with sexual dysfunction in HIV-positive women are poorly known. Methods This was a cross-sectional study in a cohort of HIV-infected women. Clinically stable women were invited to participate in a female sexual dysfunction (FSD) evaluation with Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) exploring desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, pain and satisfaction. An FSFI score Results A total of 185 women completed the FSFI. The mean (±sd) age was 42 years (±5), 27% had CDC stage C, the mean (±sd) CD4+ T-cell count was 508 cells/μl (±251) and median HIV RNA was 1.7 log10 copies/ ml (interquartile range 1.7–2.6). Among 161 evaluable patients, 59 (32%) reported FSD. In a multiple linear regression analysis, desire, arousal and satisfaction domains were associated with interference of body changes with habits, social life and attitudinal aspects of body image (β=0.22, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.06–0.37; β=0.29, 95% CI 0.10–0.48; and β=0.20, 95% CI 0.02–0.38, respectively). Lubrication and orgasm domains were associated with body image satisfaction (β=-0.49, 95% CI -0.88— 0.10 and β=-0.58, 95% CI -1.00—0.16, respectively). No significant associations with sex hormones, CDC stage, CD4+ T-cell count, HIV RNA viral load and cumulative exposure to antiretroviral drug classes were found. In women with FSD, severity of self-perceived abdominal fat accumulation showed a trend towards lower FSFI scores (ANOVA P=0.02). Conclusions FSD was highly prevalent in this cohort. Self-perceived body changes was identified as its major determinant.

We describe the clinical and virological outcome of human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) treated with cytarabine. Twenty-seven patients received intrathecal cytarabine, 5 received concomitant intravenous cytarabine, and 20 received concomitant antiretroviral therapy. The median baseline CD4+ cell count was 28/mm3. After 4 weeks, 4 (19%) of 21 evaluable patients had stable disease, whereas the others progressed. The median survival from diagnosis and from onset was 66 and 128 days, respectively. Patients with Karnofsky scores of >50 and those previously taking antiretroviral medications had a higher probability of survival 3 months after diagnosis (P = .003 and P = .05, respectively). Overall, after 4 weeks, median JC virus load in CSF increased by 0.7 log10 copies/mL from baseline (P = NS). The mean JC virus load at 4 weeks was lower in patients with stable disease than in progressors (3.47 vs. 4.47 log10 copies/mL; P = .027). JC virus became undetectable in the only patient who had a long-term stable condition. The concentration of JC virus in CSF showed a correlation with clinical outcome.

Methods A short questionnaire on adherence (0 to 100 scale on the question "How much are you adherent to drug prescriptions?"), self-reported discontinuations, satisfaction and trust in therapy, physical (PhysH) and Mental(MentH) Health, and self-reported symptoms was administered at any visit to any outpatient taking HAART. An automatic report resuming the adherence, self-reported discontinuations and health status measures was generated and sent to physician for discussion with patient at the following visit. A SRDisc event was defined when patient reported having stopped all the drugs for at least 24 hours in the 2 months before. A composite measure for viro-immunological failure was used (CD4 50 c/ml). A symptom score was built summing self-reported scores (from 0-at all to 4-very much) for each of 19 listed symptoms.