About the Diseases

CMV Infections in Immunocompromised Individuals

Primary (or initial) CMV infection in immunocompromised patients can cause serious disease, however, a more common problem is the reactivation of a dormant infeciton. CMV is a major cause of disease and death in immunocompromised patients, including organ transplant recipients, patients undergoing hemodialysis, patients with cancer, patients receiving immunosuppressive drugs, and HIV-infected patients.

CMV has long been recognized as the single most important pathogen causing acute disease in heart, lung, pancreas and liver transplantation. CMV infection is a significant factor in graft rejection in solid organ transplants, graft versus host disease in bone marrow transplants, and is implicated in the development of coronary disease in heart transplant patients.

An active CMV infection can result in mononucleosis, pneumonitis and other organ-specific diseases that have long been associated with allograft rejection in the immuno-compromised patient, and is an important contributor to transplant atherosclerosis (TA). Furthermore, over the past years, the importance of CMV in vascular diseases such as conventional atherosclerosis and restenosis following coronary angioplasty has received increased attention. While all vascular disease that occurs in transplant recipients is not likely due to CMV, this virus clearly holds a unique distinction in giving its pathogenic signature to a proportion of these diseases.