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Because of the widespread use of immunosuppressive drugs, CMV infection is one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality in patients with haematological malignancies worldwide. The aim of the study was to retrospectively analyse the epidemiology of CMV infection in haematological patients. Between 2008 and 2014, 1238 quantitative CMV DNA detections from plasma specimens were performed. These specimens were collected from 271 patients with haematological malignancy. Patients were grouped on the basis of underlying diseases (lymphoid and myeloid malignancies and other haematological diseases). In the lymphoid and myeloid groups, we distinguished ASCT and non-ASCT groups. During the studied period, the majority of examined patients (82.6 %) were treated with lymphoproliferative disease. A total of 126 (46.5 %) patients underwent ASCT, while 145 (53.5 %) did not have stem cell transplantation. A total of 118 (9.5 %) of 1238 plasma specimens proved to be positive for CMV DNA; these specimens were collected from 66 (24.4 %) patients. Twenty-four (16.6 %) of 145 non-ASCT patients had CMV PCR positive specimens. Among non-ASCT patients with positive CMV PCR results, 10 patients were asymptomatic, 14 had symptomatic reactivation, while 2 had CMV disease. In the ASCT group, 42 (33.3 %) patients had CMV PCR positive samples. CMV reactivation was asymptomatic in 34 (81 %) cases, and 8 (19 %) patients had symptomatic reactivation. In the non-ASCT group, the rate of CMV infection is low. In the ASCT group, the prevalence of CMV infection was higher than in the non-ASCT group, but the majority of CMV infection was asymptomatic and only small number of patients had symptomatic reactivation. Thus, our results also showed that the use of routine CMV DNA monitoring is not necessary in patients with haematological malignancies not receiving fludarabine-containing regimen or alemtuzumab, in spite of this to decrease the mortality we have to consider the use of molecular tests in case of suspected infectious conditions.

Background/aim: Due to the increasing number of immunocompromised patients and widely used autologous stem cell transplantation procedures, clinicians have to face with the emergence of infectious diseases. In this setting, we mainly focus our interest on cytomegalovirus (CMV) testing and only in some cases on other herpesviruses (HHV). Herein, we present monitoring of HHV-6 virus re-activation and infection in patients after autologous stem cell transplantation., Materials and Methods: One hundred and twenty-one blood and 2 cerebrospinal fluid specimens from 35 patients were tested for the presence of HHV-6 DNA., Results: In 4 patients, a positive HHV-6 signal was detected. In 1 patient, simultaneous detection of CMV and HHV-6 could be observed; however, a low copy number result during CMV testing was obtained. Delayed engraftment or other clinical signs of infection could not be detected in patients with a positive HHV-6 result, except in the case of patient 4 who had limbic encephalitis due to HHV-6 reactivation., Conclusion: Because of the possible severe manifestations of HHV-6 infection in immunocompromised patients, screening of HHV-6 infection or reactivation is recommended as part of the routine laboratory procedure., (Copyright © 2014 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved.)