Should pulmonary tuberculosis be an AIDS-defining diagnosis in patients infected with HIV?
Between 1983 and 1989, we cared for 56 patients with tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. In 37 patients (66%), tuberculosis occurred before any other AIDS-defining disease (group 1); in 10 (18%) it occurred during the same month as another AIDS-defining disease (group 2); and in 9 (16%), after the diagnosis of AIDS (group 3). Tuberculosis was entirely pulmonary in 14 patients (25%), entirely extrapulmonary in 9 (16%), and both pulmonary and extrapulmonary in 33 (59%). The frequency of extrapulmonary involvement was similar in patients from group 1 and from groups 2 and 3 (combined): 76% versus 74%. Needle biopsy of the liver revealed hepatic involvement in 18 patients (32%). The mean CD4 lymphocyte count was 232/mm3 when tuberculosis was entirely pulmonary, and 243/mm3 when extrapulmonary disease was present (difference not significant). In group 1, the onset of both pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis occurred at the same stage of HIV infection, 12 and
