To characterize neurological and neuropsychological findings associated with human immunodeficiency virus type-I (HIV) infection, 77 seropositive homosexual or bisexual males with no or minor ...symptoms of HIV were compared prospectively to 44 HIV seronegative men by observers blinded to serological status of the subjects. Neurological symptoms and examination findings were not significantly different between seropositives and seronegatives except for cranial nerve findings, predominantly mild hearing impairment. Mean performance scores for a 15-test neuropsychological battery were within an unimpaired range for both groups, although for five tests, mean scores were significantly poorer in seropositives. After adjustment for vocabulary score, and demographic and psychosocial variables, the mean score of seropositives was significantly worse only for the Benton Visual Retention Test. Magnetic resonance (MR) images of brain were abnormal in 14 (27%) of 52 seropositives and one of 10 seronegatives (value was not significant). HIV was isolated from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in 31 (61%) of 51 seropositives. The only clinical or laboratory difference between CSF culture positives and negatives was a higher CSF immunoglobulin synthesis rate in the former subjects (medians of 10.3 versus 0.1 mg/day; p = 0.03). An additional 13 seropositive subjects had immunologic evidence of central nervous system HIV infection, defined by a serum-to-CSF HIV antibody ratio of less than 5.5. Intracranial abnormalities on MR imaging were associated with CSF immunologic responses to HIV. Nervous system involvement occurred in the vast majority of men with early HIV infection, but clinically significant impairment was uncommon.
Twenty-nine patients with first-episode rectal herpes simplex virus infection were enrolled in a double-blind trial of oral acyclovir, 400 mg five times daily, vs placebo treatment. Eighty percent of ...those receiving acyclovir compared with 25% of placebo recipients no longer had herpes simplex virus isolated from their rectal lesions three days after onset of therapy. The median duration of rectal lesions and viral excretion from rectal lesions (median, five and zero days, respectively) was significantly shorter in patients treated with acyclovir than in placebo-treated patients (14 and 11 days, respectively). Durations of local signs and symptoms of proctitis, such as rectal pain, discharge, and friability, were shorter in acyclovir recipients than in placebo recipients, but these differences were not statistically significant. Daily administration of 2 g of oral acyclovir for ten days alleviates some of the clinical signs of herpes simplex virus rectal infection.
