Biological Haematological Manifestations of HIV Infection

Abstract

Introduction: Hematological abnormalities are common in people with HIV infection. These abnormalities may be due to HIV infection itself, opportunistic infections, HIV-related malignancies, or secondary to the treatments used in HIV infection. Material and method: We report a retrospective study spread over a period of 3 years, relating to patients whose haematological assessment was sent to the laboratory of the Avicenne military hospital in Marrakech. We included in this study, all HIV-positive patients. Excluded were HIV-positive patients for whom the myelogram was not requested. Results: 20 HIV positive patients whose myelogram was sent to the hematology laboratory. The average age was 37.46 years. The sex ratio was 0.5. Anemia was observed in 80% of patients. The most predominant type of anemia was normochromic normocytic anemia, found in 42% of cases. The total number of leukocytes ranged from 1,500 to 19,000 cells / mm3. The number of platelets varied from 20,000 to 500,000 / mm3. The blood smear was performed in all of our patients and who showed globular abnormalities. 2 smears had revealed the presence of lymphoblasts. The myelogram showed images of activated macrophages without hemophagocytosis in 25% of the cases, a macrophagic activation syndrome in 20% of the patients and an acute lymphoblastic leukemia type Burkitt in 10% of the marrow. The bone marrow was mostly reactive (45%). Conclusion: Haematological manifestations are frequent in patients infected with HIV. These abnormalities must be managed to reduce the patient's morbidity.