An Unusual Manifestation of Cytomegalovirus Infection
Author(s): Sundari S* and Jennifer Priscilla V
Abstract
Acid peptic disease is one of the important treatable causes of abdominal pain. The term encompasses esophagitis, gastritis, peptic ulcer disease and duodenitis. Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a DNA virus of the herpes virus group and as such, after primary infection, causes latent infection with frequent subclinical reactivations for the life of the host. Risk of reactivation is higher in immunocompromised patients for whom CMV is recognised as an important pathogen. It is ubiquitous in the community, and in the immunocompetent host usually results in asymptomatic infection. Although CMV infection in immunocompetent hosts is generally asymptomatic or presenting as a viral or mononucleosis-like syndrome, gastrointestinal, neurological, haematological, skin, cardiac or ocular CMV disease can also occur, mostly as reactivation. In these cases, it can cause severe organ damage, resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. We present a rare case of an immunocompetent patient with CMV gastritis as manifestation of an acute CMV infection.