prevalence of cytomegalovirus infection in candidates for pediatric liver transplantation at namazi hospital of shiraz during 2006-2009

introduction: cytomegalovirus (cytome-galovirus: cmv) infection is a common cause of morbidity and mortality in patients who are the candidate for liver transplant. serological monitoring of individuals rece-iving and giving the liver transplant is necessary for prevention, early diagnosis and treatment strategies and reducing the prevalence of infection. the aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of cmv serology in pediatric candidates for liver transplantation in namazi hospital of shiraz. materials & methods: this cross-sectional and retrospective study was carried out on the serological data collected from 98 child patients less than 18 years old who had referred to the namazi hospital of shiraz university of medical sciences and were candidates for liver transplantation during 2006-2009. the serological parameters, igm and igg cmv were determined by im-munoassay methods. findings: of 98 child patients, 58 were male and 40 were female. their most com-mon symptoms were jaundice and ascites. the most underlying diseases leading to liver transplantation were cryptogenic cirr-hosis, duct bile atresia and tyrosinemia. percentages of candidate children of liver transplant with positive igm and igg cmv were 9.92% and 3.17%, respectively and that of candidate children with negative igm and igg cmv were 1.7% and 7.82, respectively. the positive serology along with the high prevalence of the disease had been caused that the high risk patients (the positive donor and negative receptor gro-ups) comprised a lesser percentage of our patients because the transplant receptors with negative serology were only 7.1%. discussion & conclusion: the high preva-lence of positive cmv amongst candidates for liver transplantation confirmed the need for appropriate and continuous programs to prevent the side effects of the infection through early diagnosis and treatment. th-ese measures are essential to have a positive outcome in candidate patients for liver tran-splantation.