Performance of Cytomegalovirus Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Assays of Fecal and Plasma Specimens for Diagnosing Cytomegalovirus Colitis

INTRODUCTION

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) viral load detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in plasma or stool may facilitate detection of CMV colitis.

METHODS

This prospective study enrolled 117 patients with clinically suspected CMV colitis. Patients presenting with gastrointestinal symptoms and having increased risk of CMV infection were eligible. All participants underwent colonoscopy with tissue biopsy. Five patients underwent colonoscopy twice because of clinical recurrence, resulting in a total of 122 colonoscopies. Stool CMV-PCR and plasma CMV-PCR were performed within 7 days before/after colonoscopy. Twenty asymptomatic volunteers also underwent the same protocol.

RESULTS

Twenty-seven (23.1%) of 122 colonoscopies yielded positive for CMV colitis. The sensitivity and specificity was 70.4% and 91.6% for stool CMV-PCR and 66.7% and 94.7% for plasma CMV-PCR, respectively. The sensitivity of either positive plasma or positive stool CMV-PCR was 81.5%, which is significantly higher than that of plasma CMV-PCR alone ( P = 0.045). However, positive results from both tests yielded a specificity of 95.8%, which is significantly higher than that of stool CMV-PCR alone ( P = 0.045). There was a good and significant correlation between stool CMV-PCR and plasma CMV-PCR ( r = 0.71, P < 0.01), and both tests significantly correlated with the cytomegalic cell count ( r = 0.62, P < 0.01 for stool and r = 0.64, P < 0.01 for plasma). There were no positive stool or plasma CMV-PCR assays among volunteers.

DISCUSSION

The results of this study strongly suggest that the combination of stool CMV-PCR and plasma CMV-PCR can be used to confidently rule in (both positive) or rule out (both negative) a diagnosis of CMV colitis.

Burden of Inflammatory Bowel Disease on Patient Mood, Fatigue, Work, and Health-Related Quality of Life in Thailand: A Case-Control Study

Background

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has become an emerging disease in Asia. The burden of disease affects health-related quality of life (HRQoL), economics, and society. We compared HRQoL of IBD patients with/without active disease to that of the general population.

Methods

Consecutive patients with active disease and patients in clinical remission were prospectively recruited. For each IBD patient, an age- and sex-matched healthy control was invited. Active disease was defined as patient-reported clinical symptoms (ClinPRO) with endoscopic inflammation. All participants completed five questionnaires: (1) Short IBD Questionnaire (SIBDQ); (2) Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); (3) Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue (FACIT-Fatigue); (4) Work Productivity and Activity Impairment questionnaire (WPAI); and (5) EuroQol 5-Dimension 5-Level scale (EQ5D5L). Multiple regression analyses were used to assess differences in HRQoL scores between IBD patients and controls.

Results

A total of 418 participants (209 IBD, 209 controls) were included. There were 101 patients with active disease and 108 patients in clinical remission. Regarding patients with active disease compared with controls, there was a significant mean difference in scores (95% CI) of 12.3 (9.5-15.2) on the SIBDQ; 6.7 (4.7-8.8), FACIT-fatigue; 1.6 (0.6-2.7), HADS-anxiety; 1.6 (0.8-2.4), HADS-depression; 20.3% (13.0%-27.7%), work productivity impairment; and 0.089 (0.045-0.134), EQ5Q5L (P < .05, all comparisons). Regarding patients in clinical remission compared with controls, none of these mean differences achieved a minimal clinically important difference.

Conclusions

Active IBD has a negative impact on HRQoL, whereas patients in clinical remission showed no clinically significant difference from the general population on HRQoL.