title: Epstein-Barr viral load as a tool to diagnose and monitor post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease.
abstract: Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-induced post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD) continues to be a rare but severe complication following transplantation. EBV viral load is used as a tool to identify patients at risk for developing PTLD. However, studies on EBV viral load are hard to compare since study design as well as EBV detection method and calculation of results are highly variable. In the majority of cases EBV viral load is increased in patients with PTLD compared to patients without disease. There is, however, some overlap. Some individual patients with only low viral load show PTLD while others show the opposite. The major future goals will be to standardize EBV-DNA detection in order to generate comparable data in different centers and to establish cut-off values to distinguish patients with PTLD from patients without with a high precision.
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, University of Homburg, Homburg/Saar, Germany.
authors.forename: Barbara C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Gärtner
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fischinger
authors.forename: Hansjörg
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schäfer
authors.forename: Hermann
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Einsele
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Roemer
authors.forename: Nikolaus
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Müller-Lantzsch
mesh_terms: D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000097:blood; D020031:Epstein-Barr Virus Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000821:virology; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008232:Lymphoproliferative Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000821:virology; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014180:Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D019562:Viral Load
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral