Lymphogranuloma venereum among patients presenting at the HIV/STI clinic in Antwerp, Belgium: a case series

Objective of this study was to describe the patient characteristics and clinical presentation of laboratory confirmed lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) cases, diagnosed at the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Antwerp, Belgium. Demographic and biomedical characteristics of all patients with chlamydia-positive sample results were retrieved for the years 2013 and 2014. Samples were obtained from both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients who consulted at the HIV/STI clinic. Fifty four patients with laboratory confirmed LGV were detected among 3885 nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) performed for the detection of chlamydia during the two years under review. Fifty three were men and equally fifty three had sex with men only (MSM). HIV (87%) and HCV (31.5%) were common concomitant infections, whilst anal gonorrhoea and syphilis were detected at the moment of the LGV diagnosis among 19 (35.2%) and 6 (11.0%) cases respectively. All cases were symptomatic, except one. The most frequent symptoms that were recorded could be categorised as proctitis (in 40 patients (74%)). Lymphadenopathy, anal and genital ulcers were signs that were present in 7 (13.0%), 4 (7.4%) and 2 patients (3.7%) respectively. LGV remains an important sexually transmitted disease among MSM. In this retrospective study, the far majority of LGV was detected amongst symptomatic persons. HCV, HIV, anal gonorrhoea and syphilis were associated co-infections. Proctitis in a high risk patient should alert the clinician for the possibility of an STI.