Absence of cytomegalovirus from the gastrointestinal tract of patients with active Crohn's disease.

Background: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection reportedly is detectable in the gastrointestinal mucosa of patients with chronic inflammatory bowel disease. One view is that CMV infection is of clinical significance in patients with Crohn's disease with severe colitis not responding to steroid therapy. In this study, we evaluated the prevalence of CMV infection in our own patients with Crohn's disease treated with colon resection.