Experience with quantitative PCR for the management of HCMV disease

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a major pathogen in newborn children and immunosuppressed individuals. There are various diagnostic methods for HCMV, but all test systems either suffer from limited sensitivity and specificity or are prone to sampling errors. Due to its unequaled sensitivity, strong hopes were pinned on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the early diagnosis of active HCMV infections. However, when monitoring immunocompromised patients, unwanted positive results are often obtained without further evidence of active HCMV infection. To better discriminate between latent and active infections, different methods for the quantitation of viral genomes in clinical samples by PCR have been devised in the past years. Here we discuss the current standing of quantitative PCR in HCMV diagnostics.