Cohen S, et al. - Here, the researchers compared outcomes of children with acute severe ulcerative colitis (ASC) who were cytomegalovirus (CMV) positive or CMV negative. They found a higher prevalence of CMV positivity in pediatric ulcerative colitis patients who required colectomy within 12 months of hospitalization for ASC.

Methods

• Data was collected from centers affiliated with the Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease Porto Group of European Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition.
• Researchers performed a multicenter retrospective case-controlled study.
• CMV-positive children hospitalized for ASC were included.
• They compared these children's colectomy rate during hospitalization and up to 1 year thereafter, matched with CMV-negative controls.

Results

• The researchers included 56 children (15 CMV positive and 41 CMV negative).
• More CMV-positive patients, compared with CMV negative, were resistant to intravenous corticosteroids (93% and 56% respectively, P=0.009).
• Ganciclovir was administered in 14 CMV-positive children (93%) [5/14 (36%) with 5 mg/kg and 9/14 (64%) with 10 mg/kg].
• Three (20%) CMV-positive and 3 (7.8%) CMV-negative patients required colectomy (P=0.17) during hospitalization.
• Five (33%) and 5 (13%) CMV-positive and CMV-negative patients required colectomy, respectively (P=0.049) by 12 months, the significance of which was not retained on multivariate analysis.