[Nocardiosis in patients with HIV infection].
OBJECTIVE: To know the characteristics of nocardiosis in HIV infected patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Retrospective analysis of HIV infected patients with a concomitant Nocardia spp. infection in nine Andalusian hospitals. RESULTS: Eighteen cases of nocardiosis were studied. Seventeen patients were males and the mean age was 33.1 years. The risk behaviour for acquiring HIV infection was parenteral drug use in 15 patients (83.3%) and seven of them were active users when acquiring nocardiosis. The mean CD4 lymphocyte count was 66.3 106/l. The nocardiosis was manifested as disseminated disease in eight patients, only pulmonary disease in four cases, lymphocutaneous or soft-tissue nocardiosis in five, and pericarditis in the remaining patient. In the ten cases with pulmonary involvement, the chest X-ray revealed an alveolar, interstitial, and mixed pattern in five, three, and two patients, respectively. Most patients were treated with cotrimoxazole, with good clinical and microbiological responses in 88.8% of them. Some surgical procedures were required in six patients. Eight patients died, three on account of nocardiosis and five on account of other causes. There were three relapses. CONCLUSIONS: Nocardia spp. infection is rare among patients with AIDS and occurs in immunosuppressed patients and drug users. The pulmonary, cutaneous, and soft-tissue were the most commonly observed forms in our series. Despite the high frequency of disseminated infection, the response to th