Table 1.
Characteristics of the 12 male KS patients at study entry
| KS-IRIS (N = 1) | KS (N = 11)a | |
|---|---|---|
| Demographics | Median (IQR) | |
| Age (years) | 39 | 35 (31.5–53) |
| Risk factor | N | |
| Homosexual transmission | 1 | 9 |
| Bisexual transmission | 1 | |
| Heterosexual transmission | 1 | |
| KS staging | ||
| T0I0S0 | 1 | 1 |
| T1I0S0 | 3 | |
| T1I0S1 | 2 | |
| T0I1S1 | 1 | |
| T1I1S1 | 4 | |
| HIV- and HHV8-related parameters | Median (IQR) | |
| CD4 cell count (cells/μl) | 360 | 190 (80–335) |
| HIV plasma load (log10 copies/ml) | 4.09 | 4.97 (3.89–5.31) |
| HHV8 PBMC load (GE/105 cells) | 76 | 100 (26.50–160.75) |
| HHV8 plasma load (log10 GE/ml) | 6.16b | 3.48 (3.26–3.76) |
| HHV8 saliva load (log10 GE/105 cells) | 4.95 | 2.87 (1.84–4.14) |
| HHV8 ORF65 antibodiesc | < 50 | 400 (100–800) |
| HHV8 LANA antibodiesc | 12,800 | 800 (250–4,800) |
KS-IRIS Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome, KS Kaposi’s sarcoma, IQR interquartile range, HHV8 human herpesvirus 8, PBMC peripheral blood mononuclear cells, GE genome equivalents, ORF65 open reading frame 65, encoding for a structural protein expressed during the lytic phase, LANA latency-associated nuclear antigen. aIn the KS group, data are expressed as median (interquartile range) calculated on the measurable samples. bSignificantly higher in the KS-IRIS case vs. KS group (p = 0.01). To perform statistical analysis, samples in which HIV RNA (N = 2) could not be detected were assigned an arbitrary value of log1040, specimens in which HHV8 ORF65 antibodies (N = 3) were not detected an arbitrary value of 40, and those in which HHV8 GE were not detected (PBMC, N = 3; plasma, N = 1; saliva, N = 1) were assigned an arbitrary value of 5 (PBMC) or log105. cAntibody titers were determined using 1:50 as first dilution, and are expressed as reciprocal of the highest dilution giving a positive result