Cytomegalovirus infection and disease after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: experience in a center with a high seroprevalence of both CMV and hepatitis B virus

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and disease are important concerns after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). The similarity of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and CMV with regards to their chronic viral persistence and potential reactivation at the time of impaired cellular immunity has raised clinicians’ interest in the occurrence and association between them among patients receiving allo-HSCT; however, only limited data have been obtained from a high seroprevalence region of both CMV and HBV. We monitored 117 adult allo-HSCT patients with both CMV polymerase chain reaction and pp65 antigenemia assay weekly until day 100. In 91.8% of our cases, donors and recipients were both CMV seropositive, and 13.7% of the patients were positive for HBV surface antigen. The incidences of CMV infection and disease were 45.3% and 6.8%, respectively. Grade II–IV acute graft-versus-host disease and anti-thymocyte globulin-containing conditioning regimen were associated with an increased risk of CMV infection in a multivariate analysis (hazard ratio 3.02, 95% CI 1.68–5.42, p < 0.001 and hazard ratio 5.29, 95% CI 2.57–10.8, p < 0.001). No survival disadvantage was found in patients who developed CMV infection (p = 0.699) and CMV disease (p = 0.093). No clinically significant HBV reactivation was found, and the underlying HBV infection in donors or recipients before allo-HSCT did not increase the risk of CMV infection and CMV disease and did not influence survival after allo-HSCT.