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Blood, 15 April 2007, Vol. 109, No. 8, pp. 3219-3224. Prepublished online as a Blood First Edition Paper on December 5, 2006; DOI 10.1182/blood-2006-09-045625.
CLINICAL TRIALS AND OBSERVATIONS Distinct EBV and CMV reactivation patterns following antibody-based immunosuppressive regimens in patients with severe aplastic anemia1 Hematology Branch, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD; 2 Office of Biostatistics Research, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD; 3 Department of Laboratory Medicine, Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD; 4 Laboratory of Clinical Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD The natural history of EBV and CMV reactivation and the potential for serious complications following antibody-based immunosuppressive treatment for bone marrow failure syndromes in the absence of transplantation is not known. We monitored blood for EBV and CMV reactivation by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) weekly in 78 consecutive patients (total of 99 immunosuppressive courses) with aplastic anemia. Four regimens were studied: (1) HC, horse ATG/cyclosporine; (2) HCS, horse ATG/CsA/sirolimus; (3) RC, rabbit ATG/CsA; and (4) CP, alemtuzumab. There were no cases of EBV or CMV disease, but EBV reactivation occurred in 82 (87%) of 94 and CMV reactivation in 19 (33%) of 57 seropositive patients after starting immunosuppression. The median peak EBV copies were higher in the RC group when compared with HC, HCS, and alemtuzumab (P < .001). The median duration of PCR positivity for EBV was higher in the RC group compared with HC, HCS, and alemtuzumab (P = .001). Subclinical reactivation of both EBV and CMV is common and nearly always self-limited in patients with bone marrow failure receiving immunosuppression; different regimens are associated with different intensity of immunosuppression as measured by viral load and lymphocyte count; and viral reactivation patterns differ according to immunosuppressive regimens.
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