Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients. Antigenemia and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay are used for diagnosis of CMV disease. A number of anticoagulants are used for the collection of blood samples for antigenemia assay. Thus, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and sodium citrate are evaluated for the collection of blood sample...

BACKGROUND CMV is a major clinical problem in transplant recipients. Thus, it is important to use sensitive and specific diagnostic techniques to rapidly and accurately detect CMV infection and identify patients at risk of developing CMV disease. In the present study, CMV infection after liver transplantation was monitored retrospectively by two molecular biology assays - a quantitative PCR ass...

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease is a frequent cause of morbidity and mortality following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. In order to investigate the relationships between antigenemia, high-dose acyclovir (HDACV) prophylaxis, preemptive ganciclovir (GCV) therapy, and outcomes, we analyzed the records of 105 patients, including both pediatric and adult populations, who underwent...

The diagnostic value of monitoring human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) late pp67 mRNA expression by nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA) after renal-allograft transplantation was evaluated. RNAs were isolated from 489 whole-blood specimens of 42 patients for the specific amplification of the late pp67 (UL65) mRNA. NASBA results were compared to results from the pp65 antigenemia assay, vir...

The relationship between filarial antigenemia and lymphatic pathology was investigated in residents of 11 villages in an area of Papua New Guinea where Wuchereria bancrofti is endemic. Antigenemia was determined in 1322 persons by means of the Og4C3 antibody capture assay. Prevalence of antigenemia by village ranged from 61.7% to 98.2% and did not vary by sex. Antigen level increased with trans...

Having reported that pretreatment of serum samples with EDTA at 100 degrees C improved the sensitivity for the detection of Histoplasma antigenemia, we have evaluated this method for the detection of Coccidioides antigenemia. Urine and serum samples from patients with coccidioidomycosis were tested using the MVista Coccidioides enzyme immunoassay, and serum samples with and without EDTA-heat tr...

Nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA) was used for detection of the human cytomegalovirus (CMV) immediate early-1 (IE) and the late pp67 mRNA in 353 blood samples collected from 34 liver transplant patients. The diagnostic value of these assays was compared to that of the pp65 antigenemia assay. Overall, 95 and 42% of the antigenemia-positive samples were IE NASBA and pp67 NASBA pos...

BACKGROUND Cryptococcal infection is a common opportunistic infection among severely immunosuppressed HIV patients and is associated with high mortality. Positive cryptococcal antigenemia is an independent predictor of cryptococcal meningitis and death in patients with severe immunosuppression. We evaluated the prevalence and factors associated with cryptococcal antigenemia among patients with ...

BACKGROUND Quantitative real-time PCR assays, which are more rapid and practical than pp65 antigenemia determination, are progressively becoming the preferred method for monitoring Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) reactivation. However, the relationship between HCMV DNA and antigenemia levels is still under investigation. The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between HCMV DNA and pp...

The goal of this study was to evaluate serial cytomegalovirus (CMV) blood culture, antigenemia testing, and qualitative and quantitative plasma CMV PCR for their ability to predict CMV disease and thus to direct preemptive therapy after lung transplantation. Forty-one patients provided 414 samples for blood culture, 290 samples for antigenemia testing, and 432 samples for PCR. Seven patients de...