Human cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus infection in inflammatory bowel disease: Need for mucosal viral load measurement

Table 1 Demographic and clinical features of inflammatory bowel disease patients

	Responders	Refractory	Controls	P value
Number of patients	23	17	40
Male/female	14/9	9/8	24/16
Body mass index1	22.8 (19.9-26.4)	20.3 (16.4-22.5)	23.4 (18.9-27.3)
Age (yr)1	45 (16-68)	50 (16-61)	46 (17-68)	NS
CDAI score1	145 (124-205)	383 (265-595)	NA	0.002
Number of patients	12	4
Location	L1 = 2	L1 = 0		NS
	L2 = 3	L2 = 0
	L3 = 7	L3 = 4
	L4 = 0	L4 = 0
CAI score1	6 (3.5-9.5)	10 (8.25-11)	NA	0.040
Number of patients	11	13
Location	E1 = 2	E1 = 0		NS
	E2 = 3	E2 = 5
	E3 = 6	E3 = 8
Endoscopic activity indexes			NA
SES-CD	6.2	10.6		0.010
Baron	1.4	2.6		0.050
Illness duration (yr)1	6.5 (1.75-11)	5 (1-7)	NA	NS
Systemic steroids	4	14	NA	0.001
Topical steroids	5	8	NA	NS
Biological agents	5	8	NA	NS
Azathioprine	7	5	NA	NS
Biological + steroid	0	6	NA	0.0032
Biological + azathioprine	1	4	NA	NS
Azathioprine + steroid	1	0	NA	NS

¹The values are given as median (range). L1: Terminal ileum; L2: Colon; L3: Ileo-colon; L4: Upper gastrointestinal location; E1: Ulcerative proctitis; E2: Left sided UC; E3: Extensive UC; NA: Not-applicable; NS: Not significant; CDAI: Crohn’s disease activity index. Systemic steroids included: Metilprednisolone and prednisone; topical steroids included: Budesonide and beclometasone dipropionate; biological agents included: Infliximab and adalimumab.

Table 2 Mucosal viral loads

	HCMV	EBV
Number of patients	15/80	32/80
Refractory	286	5.440
	(0-221.697)	(0-966.333)
Diseased mucosa	30.763	8.294
	(11.911-221.697)	(1.020-966.333)
	0	281
Non-diseased mucosa	(0-3)	(12-400)
Responders	0	6
	(0-273)	(0-973)
Diseased mucosa	0	9
	(0-273)	(0-973)
Non-diseased mucosa	0	4
	(0-2)	(0-63)
Controls	0	0
	(0-41)	(0-34)

The values are given as copies of DNA/10⁵ cells and showed as median (range). HCMV: Human Cytomegalovirus; EBV: Epstein-Barr virus.