Clinical utility of liver biopsy in patients with serum antibodies to the human immunodeficiency virus.

PURPOSE

Patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) frequently have liver dysfunction, which may be due to a number of causes. Determination of the patients who are likely to benefit from liver biopsy, an invasive procedure, is therefore important. In this study, the results of liver biopsy in patients with AIDS were compared to those in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients without AIDS.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Thirty-six consecutive patients with antibodies to HIV present in the serum underwent liver biopsy from 1984 through 1988 at the Bronx Municipal Hospital. Twenty (56%) of the patients had AIDS diagnosed prior to the liver biopsy. Indications for the liver biopsy were unexplained fever in 83%, and abnormal serum levels of biochemical parameters of liver function in 89%.

RESULTS

Liver biopsy was diagnostic in 18 cases (50%), including findings of hepatic infection by mycobacteria in 15, cytomegalovirus in two, and schistosoma in one; these infections had been previously detected at an extrahepatic site in only two cases. Helpful clinical information in 10 others included findings of granulomas of undetermined etiology in four, cirrhosis in five, and chronic persistent hepatitis in one. Patients with a diagnostic biopsy, as compared to patients with a nondiagnostic biopsy, had a statistically significant increase in the frequency of having AIDS diagnosed before the biopsy, longer duration of AIDS (in patients with AIDS diagnosed before the biopsy), greater number of different prior opportunistic infections, and a more elevated serum alkaline phosphatase level. For example, 70% of patients with AIDS, as compared to 25% of patients with serum antibodies to HIV but without AIDS, had diagnostic liver biopsies. Patients with a diagnostic biopsy also had statistically significantly more frequent pulmonary symptoms, possibly due to more frequent occurrence of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. In particular, the 15 patients with hepatic mycobacterial infection, as compared to the other patients, had a statistically significant increase in the frequency of having AIDS diagnosed prior to the biopsy, longer duration of AIDS, more frequent prior opportunistic infections, more severe leukopenia, and a more elevated serum alkaline phosphatase level. Liver biopsy was more sensitive than bone marrow aspiration and biopsy at detecting mycobacterial infection.

CONCLUSION

Liver biopsy, when indicated, is useful to detect opportunistic infection in HIV-infected patients who are not known to have AIDS.