prevalence of cytomegalovirus infection in patients with ulcerative colitis by using pcr technique

Background: ulcerative colitis is one type of inflammatory bowel disease. objectives: the aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of cytomegalovirus in patients with ulcerative colitis in comparison with healthy subjects by using pcr technique. patients and methods: in this analytical case-control study, 5 patients with ulcerative colitis and 30 patients without malignancy as controls were selected. biopsy specimens were frozen under sterile conditions at -20ºc. after dna extraction, analysis of polymerase chain reaction (pcr) to detect cmv dna in tissue samples was performed. statistical analysis was performed with χ2 test. results: cmv dna was found in 80% of ulcerative colitis samples (4 of 5) and 30% of the non-malignant control group (9 of 30). statistical analysis showed significant association between the prevalence of cmv and incidence ulcerative colitis in comparison with the control group (p = 0.03). conclusions: the results of the present study has shown ulcerative colitis patients have a predisposition to cmv infection as compared to healthy individuals, but the etiologic link between ulcerative colitis and cmv infection needs to be studied.