A clinical study of neurological manifestations in HIV positive patients in a tertiary care hospital of Telangana, India

Background: Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection is a global pandemic, India has second largest burden of HIV illness. Nervous system is most frequent and serious target of HIV infection. Aim: The main aim of our study was to evaluate the occurrence of various neurological manifestations in HIV positive patients and to correlate them with CD4 count at the time of presentation. Materials and methods: This prospective study was carried out for a period of 2 years from January 2014 to December 2016 in the Department of Neurology, Gandhi Hospital, Hyderabad, India. Those patients, who satisfied the inclusion criteria (>18 year of age; HIV positive; any gender) were included in our study. Patients who were HIV positive but having non neurological medical conditions were excluded. Those with various neurological symptoms were subjected to thorough neurological examination, whenever indicated neuroimaging, CSF analysis, NCS, Toxoplasma serology were done. CD4 count was done in all patients. Results: Our study enrolled a total of 1011 HIV positive patients, out of them 354(35%) patients had neurological manifestations. Among them, 239 (67.51%) were male and115 (32.48%) were female. We analyzed patients presented with various neurological symptoms, 187(52%) patients presented with parasthesias. CD4 count was done to all patients. Out of 354 patients, 188 (39.4%) patients had low CD4 count (<200μL). NCS was abnormal in 182 (51.4%) patients. Axonal sensory neuropathy was the most common abnormality found in 82 (45.0%) patients. The most common neurological manifestation was peripheral neuropathy, seen in 166 (46.8%) patients. Conclusion: HIV infection can affect all levels of the neuronal axis. Neurological manifestations are common in 4th decade of life and males affect more than females. Peripheral neuropathy was the most common neurological manifestation and Tuberculosis was the prominent infectious etiology. Neurological manifestations are seen with low CD4 count and there is a significant correlation between them hence can be stated that, these are the manifestations of the late stage of the disease.