Premium
The role of herpes simplex virus in the development of oral mucositis in bone marrow transplant recipients
Author(s) -
Woo SookBin,
Sonis Stephen T.,
Sonis Andrew L.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(19901201)66:11<2375::aid-cncr2820661121>3.0.co;2-6
Subject(s) - mucositis , medicine , herpes simplex virus , bone marrow transplant , bone marrow transplantation , virology , bone transplantation , bone marrow , virus , immunology , surgery , radiation therapy
Herpes simplex virus (HSV) has been implicated as a major etiologic factor in the development of ulcerative mucositis in bone marrow transplant (BMT) recipients. in this study, 60 patients who received BMTs were evaluated for at least 30 days post‐transplant for ulcerative mucositis and the presence of culturable HSV. Fiftynine patients received prophylactic acyclovir. Forty‐six patients developed ulcerative lesions and 45 of these were culture negative for HSV. Neither the source of transplant (autologous versus allogenic) nor the HSV antibody status of the patient affected the frequency of mucositis. the conditioning regimen appeared to be the most significant factor contributing to the severity of ulcerative mucositis. While the majority of ulcers occurred on movable nonkeratinized mucosa in BMT recipients, the usual sites of reactivation of intraoral HSV are nonmovable, keratinized mucosa. We conclude that HSV is probably not a major etiologic agent of mucositis in BMT recipients and that acyclovir is an effective agent in preventing HSV reactivation.