Clearance of Cytomegalovirus Viremia after Initiation of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy

Abstract
In a recent report, O'Sullivan et al. [1] showed that immune reconstitution secondary to initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in 23 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected subjects with low CD4 T cell counts (median, 35 cells/mm3) resulted in a progressive decline in cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNAemia (as measured by the Digene [Beltsville, MD] hybrid capture system) in the absence of specific anti-CMV therapy. In their study, the CMV DNA load was determined after a median of ∼1, 3, and 12 months of therapy, with a significant reduction in the CMV load noted after time point 2. To contribute to these findings, we report results of a detailed analysis of CMV viremia (conventional cell culture), antigenemia (pp65 antigen, CINApool; Biosoft, Varilhes, France), and DNAemia by means of a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on plasma and leukocytes (Amplicor Monitor CMV test; Roche Diagnostics, Branchburg, NJ) in an antiretroviral-naive HIV-infected subject in whom HAART was initiated.