HIV Lymphadenopathy: Differential Diagnosis and Important Imaging Features

The purpose of this article is to review important imaging and clinical features to help elucidate causes of lymphadenopathy in patients with HIV infection. HIV lymphadenopathy has various causes generally categorized as inflammatory or reactive, such as immune reconstitution syndrome; infectious, such as tuberculous and nontuberculous mycobacterial infections and HIV infection itself; and neoplastic, such as lymphoma, Kaposi sarcoma, and Castleman disease. It is important to consider patients' demographic characteristics, clinical presentations, CD4 lymphocyte counts, and radiologic features to identify likely causes of lymphadenopathy.