Twenty-seven episodes of Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteremia in 21 patients with AIDS were evaluated at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in 1987-1992. Of 21 primary episodes, 12 were acquired in the community, 8 were nosocomial, and one was acquired in a nursing home. Sources of bacteremia (i.e., sites of infection; n = 30) included the lungs (12 cases) an indwelling vascular catheter (9), and the upper respiratory tract (5, including 2 cases of sinusitis, 2 cases of malignant external otitis, and 1 case of epiglottis/pharyngeal cellulitis); in 4 cases the source was unknown. White blood cell counts ranged from 0.1 to 26.2 (mean, 4.32) x 10(3)/mm3; in 19 of 26 cases, the absolute neutrophil count was > 1 x 10(3)/mm3. With the exclusion of primary episodes of bacteremia that resulted in death, the rate of relapse was 33.3% (5 of 15 cases). Mortality for the 25 evaluable episodes of bacteremia was 40% (32% for primary infection and 80% for relapse; P = .06); 52.6% of evaluable patients (10 of 19) ultimately died of P. aeruginosa bacteremia. The institution of appropriate therapy at presentation did not positively affect outcome. Rates of response were higher among episodes treated with a drug combination (an antipseudomonal beta-lactam or monobactam antibiotic plus an aminoglycoside) than among those treated with a single agent (P = .036).

We report 4 cases of isolated pulmonary Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infection and review the 20 previously reported cases in the human immunodeficiency virus literature. All 4 patients had acquired immune deficiency syndrome, and 3 were believed to have had an immune reconstitution syndrome as a cause of MAC infection. Two patients underwent bronchoscopy with biopsy, revealing endobronchial lesions and granuloma formation, and all 4 patients responded well to MAC therapy.

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A questionnaire assessed clinician knowledge of genotypic resistance mutations in human immunodeficiency virus. Only 24% of respondents were able to identify at least 1 mutation for each of > or =4 drug groups listed, and 36% were unable to match any mutations with any of the drug groups. Knowledge was most deficient among providers caring for < or =50 patients (P=.001) but also was poor among the 38 physicians caring for > or =100 patients (mean patient load, 211 patients).