CMV infection management in transplant patients in Italy

Abstract

Transplant represents an effective strategy in the management of chronic organ dysfunction. Nonetheless, life threatening risks remain, especially in the post-transplant; among them, human cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a major concern, currently causing active infections in at least one-third of transplant recipients. Microbiologist and transplant scientific societies redefined guidance on CMV disease prevention and the best use for universal prophylaxis and pre-emptive virological monitoring. Developments in molecular diagnostic supported the spread of the pre-emptive strategy, and quantitative Real Time-PCR assays has unravelled the potential of viral load measurement as a predictor of the infection development in CMV post-transplant management. However, despite the WHO 1st CMV International Standard, the standardization of diagnostic and clinical practice has been limited by the absence of algorithms for calculating conversion factor to International Units and the lack of shared monitoring procedure, both at national and international level. At a regional level, the Italian scientific societies, AMCLI (Italian Clinical Microbiologist Association), SITO (Organ Transplant Italian Society), GITMO (Italian Group for Bone Marrow Transplant), recently tried to define a consensus for post-transplant monitoring. The concerted practice encompasses molecular quantitative PCR assays technical aspects and endorses the relevance of immunologic monitoring for improvement in patient risk stratification and prognosis. Here, we provide an overview of the state of the art of CMV management strategies, with a specific focus on the clinical practices and on the scientific societies' initiatives that aim to implement international standardization guidelines at a national level.

Keywords: CMV; Pre-emptive therapy; Real time-PCR; Universal prophylaxis; Viral load.