title: Surveillance of active human herpesvirus 6 infection in chinese patients after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with 3 different methods.
abstract: Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) reactivation was studied in 72 consecutive allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients and 53 "healthy" donors. The feasibilities of real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RQ-PCR), nested-PCR, and antigenemia assays in the assessment of HHV-6 reactivation were also evaluated. HHV-6 DNA was detected in 62.5% and 48.6% of post-HSCT patients with the nested-PCR assay and RQ-PCR analysis, respectively, and HHV-6B was identified as the predominant variant. The incidence of HHV-6 infection peaked from the second to the seventh week, whereas the HHV-6B DNA loads peaked from the second to the third week. Compared with RQ-PCR analysis, the sensitivity and specificity of the nested-PCR assay were 100% and 88%, respectively, with positive and negative predictive values of 60% and 99%, respectively. For the HHV-6 antigenemia assay, the sensitivity and specificity were 89% and 97%, respectively, and the positive and negative predictive values were both 94%. Conditioning with antithymocyte globulin in HLA-mismatched or unrelated HSCT increased the possibility of HHV-6B reactivation after HSCT (hazard ratio, 5.92; 95% confidence interval, 1.99-17.59; P = .001). In conclusion, HHV-6B reactivation is commonly encountered after HSCT. Of the 3 methods we adopted for HHV-6 detection, both RQ-PCR analysis and the antigenemia assay could be seen as essential tests for predicting HHV-6 reactivation.
authors.affiliation: Peking University Institute of Hematology, Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Li-Ru
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Lu-Jia
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Dao-Pei
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D002648:Child; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; D015654:Herpesvirus 6, Human / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D019520:Living Donors; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D019349:Roseolovirus Infections / Q000097:blood* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics; D018571:Sentinel Surveillance; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous; D019562:Viral Load / Q000379:methods; D014775:Virus Activation / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D000956:Antigens, Viral; D004279:DNA, Viral