Background: Epithelioid bacillary angiomatosis (EBA) was studied as an infectious disease associated to immunosuppressive states, establishing the bases for performing differential diagnosis with other pathologic processes.
Methods: Two new cases of EBA in patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV) are presented. Diagnosis was performed by anatomopathologic study of the cutaneous lesions which had undergone biopsy.
Results: In one of the cases bacillary structures were observed under electron microscopy. This patient also presented Kaposi sarcoma (KS) with histologic study being therefore necessary to perform differential diagnosis between these pathologic processes. Both patients presented good response to treatment with erythromycin.
Conclusions: 1) EBA is an infectious disease of good prognosis with antibiotic treatment which fundamentally affects severely immunosuppressed patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection. 2) Biopsy is the only differential diagnostic method for this disease with other processes with similar clinical appearance and different prognosis as in Kaposi sarcoma which may even coexist in these patients.