Serial Measurement of Epstein-Barr Viral Load in Peripheral Blood in Pediatric Liver Transplant Recipients During Treatment for Posttransplant Lymphoproliferative Disease1

Abstract

Clearance of the EBV viral load from the peripheral blood seems to correlate with restoration of the host's immune response as noted both by the regression of the PTLD and the onset of rejection. Late rebound of the EBV viral load is common and does not seem to predict disease recurrence.

Plasmacytoma-like post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder, a rare subtype of monomorphic B-cell post-transplant lymphoproliferation, is associated with a favorable outcome in localized as well as in advanced disease: a prospective analysis of 8 cases

“…With positive PCR results for EBV DNA in peripheral blood in all patients with EBV-associated plasmacytoma-like PTLD, monitoring of EBV copy numbers might provide a potential further method for monitoring treatment in these patients. [20][21][22][23] However, a careful interpretation of EBV loads is necessary. 24 As bone marrow involvement and lytic bone lesions are rare, and most patients suffer from impaired renal function PTLD in localized and advanced disease haematologica | 2011; 96 (7) 1069 due to their underlying disease or the use of calcineurin inhibitors even before the diagnosis of plasmacytoma-like PTLD, neither the Durie and Salmon classification nor the ISS classification seem appropriate to predict prognosis.…”

Frequent monitoring of Epstein-Barr virus DNA load in unfractionated whole blood is essential for early detection of posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease in high-risk patients

“…Rooney et al 14 found a strong statistically significant correlation between the presence of biopsyproven PTLD and EBV burden in peripheral blood of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation recipients. Riddler et al, 15 Savoie et al, 16 Green et al, 17 and Kenagy et al 18 showed the same trend in solid-organ transplantation recipients. However, no systematic study has directly addressed the fluctuation of EBV DNA load in weekly samples obtained from a high-risk population.…”

Measuring Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) load: the significance and application for each EBV‐associated disease

“…Measuring EBV DNA has since been studied extensively and is now an indispensable tool for controlling PTLD. This method is used not only for diagnosis, but also for disease prediction [33,34,[58][59][60], therapeutic efficacy estimation [61,62], and prevention [63][64][65][66]. There has been debate regarding which specimen(s) should be used to identify PTLD.…”