title: Screening for CMV-specific T cell proliferation to identify patients at risk of developing late onset CMV disease.
abstract: Thirty patients undergoing allogeneic BMT were screened post-transplant together with their marrow donors for CMV-specific T cell proliferation and the occurrence of CMV disease. Twenty-one of these patients received a marrow transplant from an HLA-matched sibling donor, and nine from an HLA-matched unrelated donor. All these patients were either CMV seropositive and/or had received a transplant from a CMV-seropositive donor. Patients were monitored for CMV-viraemia until day +100 post-BMT by PCR and virus culture, and thereafter by virus culture only when clinically indicated. The proliferative T cell response was investigated at regular monthly intervals beginning on day +30. A proliferative response to HCMV (median, day +123) was documented in these patients between day +37 and +730 post-BMT. None of the patients with a documented CMV-specific T cell proliferation on day 120 (n = 17) developed CMV disease in the later post-transplant period, but of the patients lacking CMV-specific proliferation (n = 13), 30.8% developed CMV disease after day 120. Thus, patients lacking a CMV-specific T-helper cell response might benefit from sensitive screening for CMV infection and pre-emptive therapy after day +100.
authors.affiliation: Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik, Abteilung II, Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Krause
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hebart
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jahn
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Einsele
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D003587:Cytomegalovirus / Q000276:immunology*; D003586:Cytomegalovirus Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*