OBJECTIVETo investigate the correlation between CMV reactivation and obliterative bronchiolitis (BO) after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT).

METHODSFrom January 2011 to December 2013, 769 patients underwent allo-HSCT. The CMV infection was diagnosed by fluorescence quantitative PCR method for detecting the level of CMV-DNA and immunofluorescence staining of PP65 antigen in white blood cell. The frequency of BO in patients with and without CMV infection was compared, and the correlation between CMV infection and BO was analyzed. The clinical data of CMV infection patients with and without BO were analyzed and compared.

RESULTSOf 259 diagnosed CMV infection patients, BO occurred in 32 cases, the incidence rate was 12.35%, while in 510 cases without CMV infection, BO occurred in 8 cases, the incidence was 1.56%. The incidence rate of BO is significantly higher in patients with CMV infection than that in patients without CMV infection (P<0.001). The CMV related clinical data between the 32 cases with BO and 227 cases without BO were analyzed among the 259 cases of diagnosed CMV infection patients. BO incidence is higher in patients with more than 10⁵ copies/ml CMV-DNA than that in patients with less than 10² copies/ml CMV-DNA.

CONCLUSIONAmong the risk factors related to BO post allo-HSCT, CMV infection is one of them to be worthy of attention. CMV reactivation with high virus titer, multiple CMV reactivations and CMV pneumonia are the risk factors.