Neuroophthalmological examination in children with AIDS.

Evaluation of HIV disease status includes physical examination (anthropomorphic measurements, neurological assessment, etc.) and laboratory examination. Consideration should be given to changes from baseline values, age adjusted normal values and the rapidity of changes. Here we compare results of neuroophthalmologic assessment with Western Blo (WB) profiles in cerebrospinal fluids (CSF) of 54 children with AIDS. Children were classified by Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST) administration in encephalopathy positive (n = 44) and encephalopathy negative (n = 10) groups. Neuroophthalmological examination which included nine items with good test-retest reliability showed that two of them (nystagmus on following and visual memory impairment) appeared early in the encephalopathy free group and correlated with the loss of some gag band in Western Blot (lower gag score). No correlation was however, found with respect to p24 antigen level in cerebrospinal fluid, a marker which reflects CNS viral load.