Cytomegalovirus oophoritis: ovarian cortical necrosis

Abstract

Three of eight female patients with cytomegalovirus disease had evidence of ovarian infection at autopsy. All three patients with ovarian lesions were postmenopausal; the remaining five were premenopausal. The lesions, which may be bilateral and may occur without evidence of cytomegalovirus infection elsewhere, are distinctive macroscopically, pathognomonic microscopically, and characterized by acute focal ovarian cortical necrosis with numerous cytomegalic cells and a variable but usually severe inflammatory reaction. It is suggested that reduced ovarian cortical vascular perfusion reactivates a latent infection in cortical stromal cells. This elicits inflammatory necrosis and the characteristic morphological lesions. This previously unreported lesion is not likely to have clinical importance.