Cytomegalovirus (CMV)

In a 1992 report, a 45-year-old burned man (on cyclosporin) received skin allografts from 4 different CMV-pos skin donors and 48 blood components from CMV seropositive blood donors. After 6 weeks the patient developed signs compatible with CMV infection (cough, low-grade fever, pneumonia), and CMV was recovered from the urine and sputum. Skin biopsy specimens from the transplanted cadaver allograft revealed inclusion bodies, CMV antigens, CMV nucleic acids and CMV was cultured. Restriction enzyme analysis of a urine CMV isolate and two isolates from skin demonstrated differences in DNA patterns, suggesting that the patient was infected simultaneously with two different CMV strains. Anti-CMV titers present at admission, rose. CMV symptoms remitted after discontinuing cyclosporin. The authors speculate simultaneous CMV infection from blood, skin and reactivation of the patient's own latent CMV infection.