Oral Candidiasis as a Marker for Esophageal Candidiasis in the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Abstract

Despite the common occurrence of oral and esophageal candidiasis in patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), the relationship between infection in one site to that in the other is unknown (1). At our institution, where several hundred patients with AIDS are admitted yearly, the endoscopy service has been inundated with requests to verify the presence of esophageal candidiasis. In an effort to decrease the number of such requests, we prospectively evaluated ten patients with AIDS and oral candidiasis to determine whether the oral lesion may be sufficient to indicate esophageal involvement. We found that esophageal candidiasis could be documented