Relevance of Valganciclovir in Recurrent Bouts of Cryptogenic Inflammatory Bowel Diseases With an Infection by Cytomegalovirus

The cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a DNA virus from the herpes virus family. It is passed on between humans and even if infection is widespread (50 to 80% of people older than 35 are CMV immunoglobulin G positive) it is often asymptomatic for immunocompetent people. However, for immunocompromised people, such an infection takes on particular frequency, expression and seriousness, with a high frequency of attack to the digestive track (CMV colitis).

For immunocompetent people, colitis causes feverish bloody diarrhea associated with abdominal pain. Colitis diagnosis is often late and cases with complications have been reported (digestive bleeding, toxic giant colon and perforation). The endoscopic aspect of colitis is not specific and diagnosis is based on serology, anatomopathology or immunochemistry. Recently, PCR approaches have allowed more sensitive diagnosis.

CMV INVOLVEMENT IN CIBD PHYSIOPATHOLOGY:

Even though CMV involvement in colitis is rare but sure for immunocompetent people, its involvement in CIBD triggering and morbidity has not been solved yet.

Some authors think infection by CMV may act on CIBD as a trigger factor; since 2 cases of CMV colitis coinciding with the onset of a CIBD have been reported. For other authors, infection by CMV acts by direct pathogenicity causing ulcerative lesions of colonic mucosa and just imitates a CIBD without triggering it.