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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, May 1995, 1263-1266, Vol 33, No. 5
FS Nolte, RK Emmens, C Thurmond, PS Mitchell, C Pascuzzi, SM Devine, R Saral and JR Wingard
Surveillance blood cultures for human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) are commonly
used to identify the bone marrow transplant (BMT) recipients with the
highest risk of serious HCMV disease and for whom early interventional
ganciclovir therapy would be beneficial. We monitored 36 allogeneic BMT
recipients weekly for the presence of HCMV in the blood from 0 to 100 days
posttransplantation. Viable HCMV in leukocytes (WBC) was detected by shell
vial and tube culture methods. HCMV DNA in WBC and plasma was detected by
PCR and DNA hybridization using primers and a probe from the EcoRI fragment
D region of HCMV AD169. A uracil-N- glycosylase-dUTP PCR protocol was used
to prevent false-positive results due to amplicon carryover. Seventeen
patients had multiple consecutive positive samples containing HCMV DNA in
plasma or WBC. In 14 of 17 patients, HCMV was also detected by blood
culture. HCMV DNA was detected sporadically in six patients, none of whom
had positive cultures. One patient had HCMV viremia detected by WBC culture
only. The remaining 12 patients had no positive PCR assays or blood
cultures. For the patients with positive blood cultures, PCR detection of
HCMV DNA in plasma preceded detection of HCMV in culture by a mean of 8
days and detection in WBC preceded detection in culture by 6 days. HCMV
disease (interstitial pneumonia) was documented for two patients with
viremia (blood culture and PCR positive) and one patient without viremia
(blood culture and PCR negative). The earlier recognition of high-risk
patients provided by detection of HCMV DNA in plasma or WBC may improve the
efficacy of early interventional antiviral therapy.
Copyright © 1995 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Early detection of human cytomegalovirus viremia in bone marrow transplant recipients by DNA amplification
Department of Pathology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA.
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