A longitudinal study of human cytomegalovirus serology and viruria fails to detect active viral infection in 20 systemic lupus erythematosus patients

In this study, we investigated whether active human cytomegalovirus infecti on could be detected in 20 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients over a one-year observation period by polymerase chain reaction on serial urine specimens and by monitoring of IgG and IgM HCMV-specific antibody profiles in serial serum samples. Of 788 urine samples analysed for the presence of human cytomegalovirus DNA. only 2 specimens (0.25%) collected from two dif ferent patients contained genuine human cytomegalovirus sequences as determ ined by polymerase chain reaction and subsequent sequencing of the PCR prod ucts. These two patients had one positive sample out of 36 samples or 40 sa mples, respectively. Nineteen of the patients (95%) possessed IgG antibodie s against human cytomegalovirus, while 9 (45%) produced IgM antibodies. How ever, none of the patients showed signs of an active virus infection as jud ged by the stable anti-HCMV IgG or IgM antibody levels during the observati on period, nor was any correlation between disease activity and HCMV serolo gy/viruria observed. Of single serum samples of 26 age- and sex-matched blo od donors, 21 (81%) were HCMV IgG positive and 1 (3.8%) was IgM seropositiv e. In conclusion, our data fail to establish an active human cytomegaloviru s infection in SLE patients.