Pitfalls in Diagnosis and Therapy for CMV Colitis in a 30-Year-Old HIV-Positive Patient

We report on a 30-year-old patient who presented with bloody diarrhoea. After initially, assuming a previously not diagnosed ulcerative colitis, an immunosuppressive therapy was initiated, a week later an HIV infection stage C2 according to the CDC classification, complicated by CMV viraemia, was diagnosed. In this case report the course of treatment with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), ganciclovir and prednisolone is reported and discussed on the basis of histological, immunohistochemical and microbiological findings. The case illustrates the difficulty to distinguish between ulcerative colitis, immune reconstitution syndrome, CMV colitis and HIV-associated diarrhoea.