Cytomegalovirus Colitis Complicating Inflammatory Bowel Disease

When patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are admitted to the hospital with a flare of acute severe colitis, the possibility of a concurrent cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection causing or worsening the colitis is often considered. IBD patients are usually immunosuppressed, and therefore presumably at increased risk for active CMV infection and disease. Multiple techniques are used to diagnose CMV infection, including endoscopy, histology, serology, viral culture, CMV antigen testing, and CMV DNA testing. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) performed on colon biopsy specimens with monoclonal antibodies directed against CMV immediate early antigen is considered by most to be the current gold standard for diagnosis. The prevalence of CMV infection in acute severe colitis appears to be 21-34%, and the prevalence of CMV infection in the steroid refractory subgroup of these patients is 33-36%. After antiviral therapy, colitis remission rates in IBD patients with CMV infection range from 67% to 100%, though CMV histological infection or the presence of circulating virus alone is not always associated with steroid resistance, and may not require antiviral therapy.