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Human herpesvirus 6 variant A infection with fever, skin rash, and liver dysfunction in a patient after unrelated cord blood transplantation

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 36, pages 1109–1110 (2005)Cite this article

Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) causes significant complications after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (SCT) including skin rash, encephalitis, pneumonia, and bone marrow suppression.1, 2 HHV-6 is classified into two variants, A (HHV-6A) and B (HHV-6B). The two variants are thought to have different epidemiologies. Most symptomatic HHV-6 infections after SCT are caused by HHV-6B.3, 4, 5 Although HHV-6A has occasionally been isolated after SCT,6, 7 the pathogenicity of HHV-6A remains largely uncertain. Here, we describe the first case of HHV-6A infection after umbilical cord blood transplantation (CBT).

We have previously examined the incidences of HHV-6B infection in adults after CBT and bone marrow transplantation (BMT) by a real-time quantitative PCR method on serum samples.10 HHV-6B DNA was more frequently detected in serum samples at weeks 2 or 3 after CBT than BMT (20 of 23 patients, 87% vs 4 of 21 patients, 19%, P<0.0001). By using the same methodology, we studied the incidence of HHV-6A infection in 50 adults after CBT. In one patient (2%), as described above, HHV-6A DNA was detected in serum samples on days 14, 21, and 28 after CBT. In the remaining 49 patients, HHV-6A DNA was not detected. The presence of HHV-6 DNA in peripheral blood or other samples does not necessarily indicate clinical disease.1 In addition, further examination for other pathogenic viruses were not undertaken in our patient. However, previous studies have shown that detection of HHV-6 DNA in serum or plasma is a useful marker of active infection.2, 5, 6 Thus, fever, skin rash, and liver dysfunction in our patient were considered to be associated with HHV-6A infection. This is the first report studying the incidence and the clinical features of HHV-6A infection in the early period after CBT.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partly supported by a Grant-in-aid (16590978) from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, and Culture, Japan.

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  1. Department of Hematology/Oncology, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    A Tomonari, S Takahashi, J Ooi, K Takasugi, T Konuma, T Iseki, N Shirafuji, A Tojo & S Asano

  2. Integrative Bioscience & Biomedical Engineering, School of Science & Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan

    S Asano

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Tomonari, A., Takahashi, S., Ooi, J. et al. Human herpesvirus 6 variant A infection with fever, skin rash, and liver dysfunction in a patient after unrelated cord blood transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant 36, 1109–1110 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1705184

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