Utility of semiquantitative polymerase chain reaction for Epstein-Barr virus to measure virus load in pediatric organ transplant recipients with and without posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease

Abstract

We examined the utility of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) load as a test for the presence of posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD). A semiquantitative (SQ) EBV polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) was used to determine virus load. We compared the values from pediatric patients, both with and without PTLD, with those from healthy pediatric and adult subjects. The virus loads for asymptomatic healthy subjects had a range of 0-1 log10 cells/106 PBMCs. Among transplant recipients (n = 135), the mean virus load (× standard deviation) at the time of diagnosis of PTLD was 3.1 × 1.2 log10 cells/106 PBMCs versus a baseline value of 1.3 × 1.4 log10 cells/106 PBMCs in children without PTLD (P