Telogen Effluvium as a Clinical Presentation of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection

The document from 2002 reported on the link between telogen effluvium, a type of hair loss, and HIV infection, detailing the cases of three female patients whose initial clinical presentation of HIV was telogen effluvium. The first patient, aged 35, experienced hair and weight loss before being diagnosed with HIV, accompanied by severe hair loss and seborrheic dermatitis. The second patient, aged 31 and a former intravenous drug user, presented with hair loss, asthenia, anorexia, fever, prurigo-like lesions, and oral candidiasis before her HIV diagnosis. The third patient, also 35, had sudden hair loss after acute gastroenteritis and was diagnosed with HIV following symptoms of seborrheic dermatitis, tinea pedis, and lymphadenopathy. All patients had low CD4+ cell counts and high RNA-HIV plasma loads, with additional skin manifestations of HIV. The study concluded that telogen effluvium in HIV patients could be caused by various factors, including infections or the HIV itself, and suggested that HIV should be considered when diagnosing telogen effluvium.