The Incidence of CMV Viraemia in Severe Aplastic Anemia Patients with Acute GVHD after Allogeneic Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation

Abstract

Background: Aplastic anemia (AA) is defined as pancytopenia with a hypocellular bone marrow in the absence of abnormal infiltration or increased reticulin. Aim of the Work:This retrospective study evaluates the incidence of CMV viraemia in severe aplastic anemia patients who developed acute GVHD after allogeneic SCT in the time period from 2010 to 2015 regarding: The correlation between acute GVHD and the incidence of CMVCMV-related mortality.Disease-free survival (DFS). Overall survival (OS). Patients and Methods: Patients with severe aplastic anemia (SAA) who underwent allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) at Nasser institute, in the time period between 2010 and 2015 (5years) were included in the study. Results: In this study 28 patients (27.18 %) developed aGVHD and 11 patients (10.6 %) developed CMV viremia. 6 patients with aGVHD developed CMV viremia (P-value=0.03). Conclusion: In conclusion the use of CMV prophylaxis routinely with new agents with lower toxicity, especially in patients at high risk of CMV replication, might reduce the incidence of CMV replications, reducing so the morbidity and mortality, and according to some studies may also reduce the incidence of aGVHD and its related morbidity and mortality. Recommendations: Further studies are needed to the relationship between CMV and acute GVHD. Key words: aplastic anemia, CMV, GVHD, pancytopenia