Evaluation of a standardised real-time PCR based DNA-detection method (Realstar®) in whole blood for the diagnosis of primary human cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections in immunocompetent patients

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNA detection in blood could, as a supplementary test to serology, improve the accuracy and speed of diagnosis of an acute CMV infection. In this study we evaluated the performance of a commercially available and standardised CMV PCR assay in whole blood for the diagnosis of a primary infection in immunocompetent adults. Moreover, the kinetics of viral DNA was evaluated in order to provide a time frame in which viral DNA could be detected during an acute primary infection. Whole blood samples were collected from 66 patients with an acute CMV infection, 65 patients with an acute Epstein-Barr virus infection, 27 patients with various other acute infections (parvovirus B19, HIV, Toxoplasma gondii), 20 patients with past CMV infections (>1 year) and 20 apparently healthy persons. For CMV DNA detection and quantification a commercially available real-time PCR was applied (RealStar®, altona Diagnostics). The clinical sensitivity of CMV PCR in whole blood for the diagnosis of a recent primary CMV infection was 93.9 % and the diagnostic specificity 99.2 %. In the majority of the patients CMV DNA was not detectable anymore approximately within 4 weeks after the first blood sample was taken. From these data we concluded that, together with a suggestive serological profile, a positive CMV PCR result in whole blood can be regarded as a diagnostic confirmation of a recent CMV infection on a single blood sample in an immunocompetent patient. However, a negative CMV PCR result does not exclude a recent CMV infection.