Transfusion and cytomegalovirus-associated AIDS-defining disease in hemophiliacs. Hemophilia Malignancy Study

BACKGROUND: Whether transfusion increases the risk of AIDS-defining cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection (CMV AIDS) in immunosuppressed patients is not known. Because of concerns about the risk of transfusion transmission of CMV and potential exposure to multiple strains of CMV through transfusion, the National Hemophilia Foundation recently recommended that CMV-negative blood be used in human immunodeficiency virus-positive hemophiliacs, regardless of their CMV serologic status. Although the multiple strains of CMV cause different CMV disease manifestations in transplant recipients, there are no data on CMV disease in human immunodeficiency virus-positive hemophiliacs. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: It was hypothesized that if the transmission of CMV through transfusion causes CMV disease in human immunodeficiency virus- positive hemophiliacs, then hemophiliacs with CMV AIDS would be more likely to have received transfusions than those with AIDS-defining disease not caused by CMV (non-CMV AIDS). The number and type of transfusions were evaluated in 334 hemophiliacs with AIDS (35 with CMV AIDS and 299 with non-CMV AIDS) enrolled in the multicenter Hemophilia Malignancy Study. RESULTS: There were no differences between hemophiliacs with CMV AIDS and those with non-CMV AIDS in age, type, and severity of hemophilia; the proportion receiving transfusions; or the mean number of units transfused. These findings persisted after correction for transfusion practice, (i.e., CMV-unscreened blood vs. CMV-negative and/or white cell-reduced blood). There was no difference between the groups in CMV lgG titers or in the proportion who were CMV seropositive, and there was no difference between these parameters in those who had received transfusion(s) and those who had not. CONCLUSION: Transfusion appears to have little, if any, effect on the development of CMV AIDS or CMV lgG seroprevalence in patients with hemophilia.