[Clinical and serological findings of syphilis in HIV-infected patients].

To identify the characteristic features of lues in patients infected with HIV, 402 HIV-positive patients were examined for serological and clinical signs of lues. 141 patients (133 male, 8 female, mean age 36 [18-69] years) had a positive lues serology. Treatment for lues was required in 20 of the 141 cases (14%). In ten patients (one case of lues I, nine cases of lues II) dermatological signs were predominant, macular exanthemas (n = 4) and palmo-plantar syphilides (n = 3) being most frequent. Three patients had seropositive latent lues. Eight patients presented with signs of an active neurolues (lues II: n = 1; lues III: n = 6; lues IV: n = 1). In three of the eight cases the serum FTA-ABS-IgM findings were negative. In these three patients the need for a specific treatment was realized only on the basis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examination in conjunction with the clinical findings and the anamnesis. This result makes it very clear that indication for CSF puncture should be more liberal in some HIV infected patients. The markedly high proportion of cases of neurolues (40% of the luetic patients requiring treatment) is possibly due to reactivation of old lues infections.