Journal
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL VIROLOGY
Volume 40, Issue 3, Pages 173-179Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcv.2007.08.014
Keywords
cytomegalovirus; real-time PCR; quantitative PCR; pp65 antigenemia
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Background: Quantitative monitoring of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is currently used in the follow-up of immunosuppressed patients. Objective: To investigate whether real-time PCR quantification (QPCR) of HCMV DNA could replace pp65 antigenemia. Study design: We compared HCMV QPCR on whole blood (WB) and on plasma with a pp65-antigenemia assay on 192 samples. Afterwards, we tested 13 10 samples from 308 immunosuppressed patients both by antigenemia assay and QPCR oil WB. Results: The first study comparison showed that QPCR results on WB and plasma were significantly correlated with antigenemia. QPCR on WB was more sensitive than QPCR on plasma or antigenemia, detecting 31 and 49 additional positive samples, respectively. During the second comparison, QPCR on WB and antigenemia were again correlated (r = 0.70; p < 0.0001), but QPCR detected 244 additional positive samples. HCMV DNA was detected earlier than pp65 antigen (median difference: 14 days; range: 7-30). One, 5, 10, 50 and 100 pp65-positive cells/200,000 leukocytes corresponded to 439, 1531, 2623, 9150 and 15,671 HCMV DNA copies/mL of WB, respectively, but this equivalence differed according to the sub-group of patients considered. Conclusion: QPCR on WB is the most sensitive method for the monitoring of HCMV infection in immunosuppressed patients. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available