Abstract
We report a case of AIDS-associated Kaposi’s sarcoma occurring in an 38-year-old white male. The patient noticed a bean-sized, purple-red, irregular by shaped plaque on his right upper arm in August, 1991. Histologically the skin lesions were composed of varied sized foci of vascular proliferation in the dermis. These lesions consisted of numerous proliferating capillaries and immature spindle or plump cells around the capillaries. Not infrequently, PAS positive and diastase resistant hyaline globules were also seen in the cytoplasm of either the plump or spindle cells. These characteristic findings strongly suggested Kaposi’s sarcoma. A blood sample of the patient was positive for anti-HIV antibody using the PA method with the titer of 1:4096. In a Western blot assay performed to confirm this results, it was considered to be positive because of the presence of p24, gp41 and gp160. The skin lesion was thus concluded to be AIDS-associated Kaposi’s sarcoma. A regimen of combined therapy using zidovudine and interferon-α proved not to be very effective.
