Abstract
Objective: To investigate the clinical significance of PCR detection of human herpesvirus 6 (HHV6) in gastro biopsy on the course of diarrhea in patients with severe diarrhea after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) . Methods: Data from a cohort of 45 HSCT recipients (including age, sex, transplantation conditions, graft-versus-host disease, treatments, clinical signs, outcome, HHV6, and other infections) performed between 2015 and 2016 were collected. Univariate analysis was used to evaluate influences between the different parameters. Results: Of the 45 enrolled recipients, 21 patients (46.7%) presented HHV6 positive in gastro-biopsy during the analyzed period. The incidence of CMV viremia in the positive HHV6 group was comparable with that in the negative HHV6 group. But the incidence of EBV viremia in the positive HHV6 group was significantly higher than in the negative HHV6 group (P=0.028) . 44 out of 45 patients with severe diarrhea were given antiviral treatment with foscarnet and/or ganciclovir, the latter didn't influence the course of the diarrhea. Conclusions: Positive PCR results in GI tract samples didn't necessarily reflect reactivation of HHV6. Further studies are needed to define the significance of HHV6 for GI tract symptoms after allo-HSCT.