OBJECTIVES: To disseminate transesophageal ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) as an alternative to investigate mediastinal tumoral lesions because it is an underused modality that has been available in Brazil for more than 15 years. METHODS: Descriptive analysis of a single endoscopy service's experience since 1997 in the accomplishment of EUSFNA for mediastinal staging of previously known malignancies (Group 1) or diagnostic definition of suspect lymph nodes and masses (Group 2). RESULTS: EUS-FNA was performed in 51 patients between 26 and 87 years of age. The diameter of the lesions ranged between 1.1 and 9.8 cm (mean 3.9 cm). Their location corresponded to the following stations: higher paratracheal (4 cases), lower paratracheal (7), aortic window (12), para-aortic (6), subcarinal (9), paraesophageal (8), and hilar (5). In Group 1, 17 patients had previously diagnosed primary lung (9), breast (4), kidney (2), colon (1), and bladder (1) cancer. Fifteen of these punctures were positive for malignity. Two others were later submitted to mediastinoscopy, which identified metastases not detected by EUS-FNA. Group 2 comprised 34 patients. Among these patients, EUS-FNA diagnosed 22 neoplasms, five cases of tuberculosis and two duplication cysts. Cytology was inconclusive or without a specific diagnosis in five other cases. Mediastinoscopy identified two undiagnosed cases of oat-cell carcinoma, one lymphoma and one cryptococcosis, and confirmed one reactive lymphadenitis. There were no complications related to the method. CONCLUSIONS: EUS-FNA obviated the need for surgical procedures in 86.3% of cases. Therefore, oncologists, pulmonologists, and thoracic surgeons should always remember the technique's potential and availability.

There is a little-noticed trend involving human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients suspected of having tuberculosis: the triple-treatment regimen recommended in Brazil for years has been potentially ineffective in over 30% of the cases. This proportion may be attributable to drug resistance (to at least 1 drug) and/or to infection with non-tuberculous mycobacteria. This evidence was not disclosed in official statistics, but arose from a systematic review of a few regional studies in which the diagnosis was reliably confirmed by mycobacterial culture. This paper clarifies that there has long been ample evidence for the potential benefits of a four-drug regimen for co-infected patients in Brazil and it reinforces the need for determining the species and drug susceptibility in all positive cultures from HIV-positive patients.

Pain is frequently reported by patients infected with Acquired Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), and its causes and specific treatment should be appropriately investigated. We evaluated 197 hospitalized HIV-positive patients with serial interviews and analysis of prescriptions and clinical evolution charts. The main characteristics of pain reported by these patients were: high intensity (60.7%), high frequency (72.0%) and well-known causes (88.8%). Fifty-two per cent of the patients reported persistent or frequent pain during the two weeks before hospital admission. Parameters such as gender, educational level and Karnofsky Index showed no direct relation to the presence or absence of pain. The most commonly affected sites were the head (28.0%) and the abdomen (26.2%). The frequency of indications of pain in the clinical evolution charts (46.2%) was considerably lower than the frequency of complaints reported by patients during the interviews (76.3%). Pain was undertreated in 83.2% of patients, both due to poor efficacy of the prescribed medications and to the excessive and inefficient use of standing order ("if necessary") regimens. We observed that pain was better managed during the hospitalization period, although this cannot be explained by improvement of the analgesic treatment; it might be due to successful treatment of the underlying disease. We concluded that pain reported by hospitalized HIV-positive patients is often underestimated and inadequately treated by assisting doctors, in spite of its severity and frequency.