Surveillance of cytomegalovirus infections in bone marrow transplant in Trieste: seven years' experience.

Forty-five consecutive patients submitted to a bone marrow transplant (BMT) were followed up weekly in order to evaluate the incidence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections on the basis of CMV antigenemia and polymerase chain reaction. All but one transplanted patients engrafted; fourteen patients out of these were CMV antigenemia positive after 16-184 days (median 32.5, mean 43.4) with an 31.8% incidence. CMV infections were associated with graft-versus-host disease and immunogenetic relationship between the donor and the recipient. No CMV infection was detectable in autologous transplants while antigenemia was demonstrated in 3/11 and 6/7 patients with BMT from respectively mismatched related and matched unrelated donors.