Nonmalignant disease associated with human herpesvirus 8 reactivation in patients who have undergone autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation

Fever, cutaneous rash, and hepatitis-for which an infectious cause was susp ected-developed in an Italian patient with non-Hodgkin lymphoma after autol ogous peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) transplantation. Polymerase chain r eaction (PCR) with degenerate primers for the highly conserved DNA polymera se gene of herpesviruses detected herpesvirus sequences 100% identical to h uman herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8) in serial cell-free serum samples, collected imm ediately before or concomitant with the occurrence of clinical symptoms; no other common infections were documented. The presence of the HHV-8 genome (clade C) was confirmed by PCR with HHV-8-specific primers for orf 26 and o rf-K1, HHV-8 viremia was undetectable either before transplantation or when the patient was clinically asymptomatic. Semiquantitative PCR analysis sho wed variations of the viral load correlating with the clinical status. Anti -HHV-8 antibodies were detected before and after transplantation by an immu nofluorescence assay for lytic antigens. Active HHV-8 infection may be asso ciated with nonmalignant illness after PBSC/bone marrow transplantation. (B lood. 2000;96:2355-2357) (C) 2000 by The American Society of Hematology.