Background: Synergism between tuberculosis and HIV is responsible for the increased morbidity-mortality rate in AIDS patients. Objective: To delineate the profile of patients with tuberculosis and AIDS in the city of Rio Grande by relating demographic, clinical and laboratory data. Method: The sample comprised all cases of tuberculosis defined by identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis that occurred in the AIDS Service of the University Hospital/FURG between September, 1997 and December, 2000, which added to a total of 31 patients confirmed as definite cases of AIDS. Using the Ogawa-Kudoh culture method and the Kinyoun bacilloscopy, 33 clinical pulmonary and extrapulmonary specimens were analyzed. Identification of M. tuberculosis was made by the usual phenotype methods. The method of proportions was chosen to establish resistance of isolated strains. Results: The mean age was of 33.8±9.9 years, with a man/woman ratio of 2.87:1 and 80.7% of Caucasians. All patients (n=31) exhibited overall or specific clinical manifestations of turberculosis at the time of suspicion diagnosis. In 20 of the cases risk factors were observed: use of injected drugs, alcoholism, malnutrition, imprisonment. Pulmonary disease occurred in 19 cases, extrapulmonary in 10 and the association of both in two. Lymph node commitment was more frequent among those with extrapulmonary disease. The isolated strains (33) were identified as M. tuberculosis and 28 were tested and showed sensibility to Isoniazid and Rifampin. Conclusion: In AIDS patients, tuberculosis appeared with various clinical manifestations, jeopardizing both men and women of less favored social conditions while at a fully productive stage of their lives.

Keywords: Tuberculosis/epidemiology. Tuberculosis/complications. Acquired immunodeficiency syndorme/tuberculosis. Mycobacterium tuberculosis/indicators of morbidity and mortality.