Bone marrow cytomorphological changes in patients co-infected with visceral leishmaniasis and human immunodeficiency virus

IMAGES IN CLINICAL HEMATOLOGY

Bone marrow cytomorphological changes in patients co-infected with visceral leishmaniasis and human immunodeficiency virus

Alana Jocelina Montenegro de Castro^I; Romelia Pinheiro Gonçalves^II; Maria Helena da Silva Pitombeira^III

^IPathology Department, Universidade Federal do Ceará - UFC, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil

^IIDepartment of Clinical Analysis and Toxicology, Universidade Federal do Ceará - UFC, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil

^IIIDepartment of Clinical Medicine, Universidade Federal do Ceará - UFC, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil

^{Corresponding author}

ABSTRACT

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a severe systemic infectious disease.⁽¹⁾ It has been recognized as an opportunistic disease in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).^(2,3) The analysis of the bone marrow of patients co-infected with VL and HIV showed dysplasia of erythroid, granulocytic and megakaryocytic lineages (Figure 1), besides the presence of plasmacytosis, cytoplasmic bodies, hemophagocytosis, granuloma and intracellular and extracellular leishmania amastigotes (Figure 2). These findings are found in the analysis of bone marrow of patients co-infected with HIV and VL; knowledge of these findings may be useful for the diagnosis and prognosis of patients.

Keywords: HIV infections; Bone marrow examination; Leishmaniasis, visceral; AIDS-related opportunistic infections

Submitted: 10/18/2011

Accepted: 10/21/2011

Conflict-of-interest disclosure: The authors declare no competing financial interest

www.rbhh.org or www.scielo.br/rbhh

• 1. Jawhar NM. Visceral Leishmaniasis with an Unusual Presentation in an HIV positive patient. Sultan Qaboos Univ Med J. 2011;11(2):269-72.
• 2. Daher EF, Fonseca PP, Gerhard ES, Leitão TM, Silva Júnior GB. Clinical and epidemiological features of visceral leishmaniasis and HIV co-infection in fifteen patients from Brazil. J Parasitol. 2009;95(3):652-5
• 3. Alexandrino-de-Oliveira P, Santos-Oliveira JR, Dorval ME, Da-Costa FC, Pereira GR, da Cunha RV, et al. HIV/AIDS-associated visceral leishmaniasis in patients from an endemic area in Central-west Brazil. Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz. 2010;105(5):692-7.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  12 Mar 2012
• Date of issue
  Dec 2011

History

• Received
  18 Oct 2011
• Accepted
  21 Oct 2011