CYTOMEGALOVIRUS ENTERITIS AND COLITIS IN NONIMMUNOCOMPROMISED PATIENTS - PRIMARY DISORDER OR SUPERINFECTION

Cytomegalovirus disease is an opportunistic infection that is seen in patients with immunodeficiencies. The group most commonly affected are AIDS and transplanted patients. Only a few cases of cytomegalovirus d isease in non-immunocompromised patients have been reported. In locali zed disease, the gastrointestinal tract is the most frequently affecte d. We report two cases of acute abdomen caused by cytomegalovirus ente ritis and colitis (histophatological diagnosis) without any underlying immune disorder. The role that the cytomegalovirus infection might pl ay in the development of the clinical manifestations in these two case s is discussed. Without an established immunodeficiency we must be car eful to attribute to cytomegalovirus infection the direct responsabili ty of the lesions. In the reported cases, the existence of intestinal ischemia is more than just a clinical hypothesis and pathological exam ination is inconclusive. The absence of an immunocompromised state, th e presentation as an acute abdomen and the clinical course forwards in testinal occlusion in the first case are not characteristic of cytomeg alovirus enteritis and colitis. We conclude that the two reported case s are in fact an ischemic enteritis upon which cytomegalovirus enterit is and colitis was superimposed, an association that has not been repo rted before.