PREVALENCE OF JC VIRUS VIREMIA IN HIV-INFECTED PATIENTS WITH OR WITHOUT NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS - A PROSPECTIVE-STUDY

Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy (PML) is a severe demyelina ting disease, which is rapidly fatal and is due to JC virus (JCV) infe ction, which especially occurs in HIV-infected patients, To investigat e JCV pathophysiology and to evaluate the predictive value of JCV dete ction in blood, we looked for JCV DNA in leukocytes and plasma of 96 p atients without any neurological symptoms and 109 patients with neurol ogical diseases, among whom 19 were suffering from PML. JCV genome was detected in about 18% of all patients, i.e. 15.6% of patients with ce ntral nervous system disorders except PML, 13.5% of patients without n eurological symptoms and significantly more often in PML patients (47. 6%). Both leukocytes and plasma were tested; in plasma, JCV DNA was fo und in 36.1% of positive patients and in cells in 80.5%. Surprisingly in seven instances only the plasma contained JCV genome. One-year foll ow-up of these patients showed that the absence of JCV DNA in blood wa s associated with a very low probability of developing PML (negative p redictive value = 0.99).