Objectives: To establish the significance of parotid enlargement, state frequency, cytological features and effect of antiretroviral therapy (ART) on parotid enlargement among a pediatric HIV population.
Study design: A 6 month cross sectional survey that utilised clinical features, serial immunological indices and fine needle aspiration cytology.
Results: 287 HIV positive children were seen at special paediatric clinic of the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria, 114 (39.7%) had oral features and among these 24 (8.4%) had parotid involvement comprising of 10 males and 14 females. The overall mean age was 43.4 + 39.7 months compared with 59.6 + 36.5 months in the parotid enlargement group (p = 0.03). Mean ages of parotid enlargement and non enlargement group was significantly different (p = 0.03). The mode of transmission was vertical in (91.7%), 87.5% was bilateral (87.5%) and (75%) presented as a syndrome state with generalised lymphadenopathy. The predominant cytology was lymphoid hyperplasia (62.5%). ART resulted in marked clinical reduction in all the cases and statistically significant improvement in serum indices of CD4 count, CD4% and viral load (p = 0.001, 0.000 & 0.009 respectively).
Conclusion: HIV positive children often present with bilateral parotid enlargement and the syndrome state with classical clinical and cytological features of lymphoid hyperplasia predominated. ART resulted in satisfactory reduction of the swellings in most of the cases with no need for further intervention.