BK virus encephalitis without concurrent hemorrhagic cystitis in an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipient

Abstract

TO THE EDITOR: The BK virus (BKV) is a human polyomavirus of the Papovaviridae family and causes clinical disease mainly in immunocompromised hosts such as patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus or transplant recipients [1]. Only a few cases of BKV encephalitis have been reported in hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplant recipients, with the majority of cases presenting with concurrent hemorrhagic cystitis [2-4]. In this paper, we report a patient with BKV encephalitis without concurrent hemorrhagic cystitis who received allogeneic stem cell transplantation from a matched sibling donor for treatment of a second relapse of diffuse large B cell lymphoma following autologous HSC transplantation (HSCT).