AIDS-Related biliary tract disease.

Increasingly, specialists caring for patients with AIDS have reported relatively small numbers of patients with biliary tract disease. These conditions fall into three general categories: (1) non-HIV-associated conditions of the bile duct, (2) acalculous cholecystitis, and (3) AIDS cholangiopathy. Whatever the cause, a sizable percentage of patients with AIDS are found to have abnormal biliary tract morphology. It is essential for the clinician first to exclude biliary tract conditions such as gallstone disease and then to clearly investigate those patients with clinical, biochemical, or radiographic features suggestive of papillary stenosis. Patients with AIDS-associated papillary stenosis do respond symptomatically to ERCP sphincterotomy.