CASE STUDY

The lung is the site of a wide spectrum of disorders complicating the clinical course of the human immunode-ficiency virus (HIV) infection. Pulmonary function tests were routinely performed in several series of HIV-infected patients with or without pulmonary complications. Nor-mal lung volumes have been observed in HIV-seropositive patients without acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) [1]. In AIDS patients, decreased transfer factor of the lung for carbon monoxide (TL,CO) and decreased forced vital capacity (FVC) were found in association with Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia or lung involve-ment by Kaposi's sarcoma [2–4]. Furthermore, an emphysema-like disease consisting of hyperinflation without airway obstruction has been re-ported in a small series of HIV-infected patients, without infectious or tumoural complications of HIV infection [5]. However, little information is available on changes in pulmonary function over time in HIV infected patients. We describe three HIV-seropositive patients with severe obstructive disorder associated with bronchiectasis. These patients were unusual in that the rapidly progressing obstruction developed in the absence of a classical cause of bronchiectasis