Difference in the Cytomegalovirus-related clinical laboratory findings between patients with bone marrow and kidney transplantation

Despite close monitoring of transplant patients, cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection remains one of the most critical problems in the field of transplantation. This study aims to investigate the relationship between CMV viral load and clinical laboratory findings in transplant recipients.

Thirty-four transplant recipients comprising 15 kidney transplant (KT) recipients and 19 bone marrow transplant (BMT) recipients admitted to the Imam Reza Hospital in Kermanshah province, Iran were enrolled in this study. The CMV viral load was quantified by the real-time PCR technique.

The CMV viral load in KT recipients was significantly higher than in BMT recipients (p=0.03), and there was a positive association between the level of virus and the level of cyclosporine in the blood of patients ((r=0.51, p=0.02)). Besides, CMV viral load was positively correlated with WBC (r=0.32, p=0.04), urea (r=0.47, p=0.002), creatinine (r=0.39, p=0.01), AST (r=0.33, p=0.04), and LDH (r=0.4, p=0.01) and was negatively associated with albumin (r=-0.61, p<0.001), sodium (r=-0.4, p=0.01), and calcium levels (r=-0.46, p=0.003). There was also a meaningful difference in the CMV-related clinical laboratory findings between KT and BMT recipients, urea (p=0.02), creatinine (p=0.001), uric acid (p=0.005), direct bilirubin (p=0.04), albumin (p=0.04), platelet (p<0.001), and sodium (p=0.04) levels.

Based on present data, we conclude that despite careful monitoring of patients, infection with CMV is still one of the most important problems associated with organ transplantation, which is directly related to many laboratory findings.