Investigation of the Diagnostic Value of CMV DNA Positivity in Different Clinical Samples

Abstract

Cytomegalovirus, a common herpesvirus, is often acquired during childhood or adolescence. After viral DNA integrates into the host, lifelong latency can occur as latent infection in various organs, including the intestines, without causing disease. However, in immunocompromised individuals, primary infection or reactivation of the latent virus can lead to serious illnesses. Histological and serological tests are used for the diagnosis of cytomegalovirus infection. In addition, detecting cytomegalovirus DNA in plasma or biopsy samples via Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is also esssential. In this study, a retrospective analysis was conducted on 200 patients whose samples were sent to the Molecular Microbiology Laboratory of Ondokuz Mayıs University Faculty of Medicine for Cytomegalovirüs PCR testing between 2023 and 2025. Patients who had both plasma and tissue samples sent simultaneously were included in the study. Of the tissue samples analyzed, 92.5% were colonoscopy materials obtained from patients diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease. The number of patients with both plasma and tissue positivity was 42, 30 were tissue positive but plasma negative, and 15 were plasma positive but tissue negative. In 113 patients, Cytomegalovirus DNA was not detected in either sample. Detection of cytomegalovirus DNA in plasma does not provide sufficient information for the diagnosis of cytomegalovirus infection, which is a tissue-tropic virus. Performing this test on tissue samples with clinical symptoms may offer greater diagnostic utility. © 2025, Ondokuz Mayis Universitesi. All rights reserved.