difference in the cytomegalovirus-related clinical laboratory findings between patients with bone marrow and kidney transplantations

Background: despite close monitoring of transplant patients, cytomegalovirus (cmv) infection hasremained one of the most critical problems in transplantation. this study investigates the relationshipbetween cmv viral load and clinical laboratory findings in transplant recipients.materials and methods: a total of 34 transplant recipients comprising 15 kidney transplant (kt)recipients and 19 bone marrow transplant (bmt) recipients admitted to the imam reza hospital inkermanshah province, iran, were enrolled in this study. the cmv viral load was quantified by thereal-time pcr technique.results: 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 cyclosporinein 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), aspartate aminotransferase(r=0.33, p=0.04), and lactate dehydrogenase (r=0.4, p=0.01). also, it was negatively associatedwith albumin (r=-0.61, p<0.001), sodium (r=-0.4, p=0.01), and calcium levels (r=-0.46, p=0.003).there were also significant differences between kt and bmt recipients regarding the cmv-relatedclinical laboratory findings of 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.conclusion: based on present data, we conclude that despite careful monitoring of patients, infectionwith cmv is still one of the most important problems associated with organ transplantation, which isdirectly related to many laboratory findings.