Role of antigenemia assay in the early diagnosis and treatment of CMV infection in renal transplant patients.

Aim: CMV antigenemia by direct pp65 antigen detection and quantification was monitored on a weekly basis during the first 3 months after kidney transplantation.

Subjects And Methods: Preemptive therapy with ganciclovir was started according to the following criteria: any positive antigemia in CMV-NEG subjects, a single determination > or = 30 cell or a two fold increase of positive cells in two consecutive specimens in CMV-POS and continued until pp65 was cleared. Overall, 109 patients were monitored.