Advances in diagnosis of herpesvirus infections: clinical and therapeutic correlations
- 1 December 2002
- journal article
- infection
- Published by Wolters Kluwer Health in Current Opinion in Organ Transplantation
- Vol. 7 (4) , 308-313
- https://doi.org/10.1097/00075200-200212000-00002
Abstract
In the last few years, several advances have been made in the diagnosis of herpesvirus infections in solid organ transplant recipients. In particular, qualitative and quantitative assays for diagnosis of human cytomegalovirus infections include viremia (quantitation of infectious virus), antigenemia (quantitation of peripheral blood leukocytes positive for human cytomegalovirus pp65), and DNAemia and RNAemia (quantitation of human cytomegalovirus nucleic acids) detectable in whole blood, plasma or leukocytes. In addition, quantitation of Epstein-Barr virus DNA in blood seems to predict development of posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorders. Similarly, quantitation of human herpesvirus 6, 7, and 8 DNA is being investigated to define these viruses' pathogenic role. Clinical cutoffs or threshold values for appearance of clinical symptoms are being defined for human cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus. These values represent the basis for the selection of cutoffs of viral load for initiation of antiviral treatment, according to preemptive therapy strategies in human cytomegalovirus infections, or for immunosuppression reduction or infusion of Epstein-Barr virus-specific cytotoxic T cells for prevention of Epstein-Barr virus-related posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorders.Keywords
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