Neurologic manifestations of AIDS: a comparative study of two populations from Mexico and the United States.

Neurologic complications associated with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection vary geographically. To understand the pattern of HIV-associated neurologic complications in Mexico, 120 AIDS patients from Mexico City, Mexico, and 500 AIDS patients from Houston, Texas, were studied cross-sectionally and retrospectively. Neurologic, laboratory, imaging, and pathologic examinations identified 40 Mexican patients and 130 U.S. patients with neurologic complications. Whereas AIDS dementia complex was the most common neurologic manifestation in both groups, intracranial tuberculoma was present only in the Mexican population (10%). Primary brain lymphoma was more prevalent in the U.S. population (8.4%). The different findings in the Mexican population likely reflect afflictions common to developing countries--a high prevalence of tuberculosis and a high mortality rate. These conditions preclude complications such as lymphoma, which develop later in the natural course of HIV infection.