CYTOMEGALOVIRUS INFECTION AMONG RENAL ALLOGRAFT RECIPIENTS

Abstract

Abstract A comprehensive serologic, virologic and histologic study has been made of the incidence and clinical significance of cytomegalovirus infection among 43 renal allograft recipients. Material adequate for investigation was available from 36 patients and evidence of infection was found in 33, giving an incidence of 91%. In the majority of patients infection occurred during the first two months after transplantation. Most infections were clinically inapparent, but in four patients a febrile illness associated with a relative lymphocytosis was seen, which it seems reasonable to assume was caused by infection with cytomegalovirus. Cytomegalovirus pneumonia based on the finding of cytomegalic cells in the lungs was seen in 7 of the 17 autopsied patients. Although there was extensive cytomegalovirus pneumonia in three patients, death was not considered to have been caused by, or indeed significantly contributed to the infection, as all had a bacterial pneumonia as well.