Background and study aim: The clinical significance of Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and its pathological effects have increased  in the past 20 years and it became one of the common causes of disability and may be mortality in immuno-compromisedhosts. This work aimed to assess the prevalence of HCMV infection in patients with chronic HCV and its correlation with HCV load in Clinical Pathology and Tropical Medicine departments, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University.
Patients and Methods: This study included 120 individuals between May 2015 to May 2016..They were assigned into two groups: Group I (Control group) Included Session [CurrentTestPartID] apparently healthy persons (34 male & 26 female) with their age range from 21-Session [CurrentTestPartID] years (mean 37.3±12.4 years). Group II (Patient group) Included Session [CurrentTestPartID] chronic HCV patients (40 male & 20 female) with their age ranged from 20-62 years and mean age 37.5±11.9 years (all were Child A according to Child-Pugh classification) and were subdivided into 4 subgroups according to viral load by quantitative PCR (where lower detection limit assay less than 15 IU/mL) Resolved Group (viral load not detected), Mild viremia group (viral load: <200,000 IU/mL), Moderate viremia group (viral load: 200,000 - 2,000,000 IU/mL) and Severe viremia group (viral load: more than 2,000,000 IU/mL) as measured by the National Genetics Institute assay.
Results: In this study; it was found that in HCV-positive group, serum ALT levels were higher in HCMV positive patients compared to HCMV negative patients. Also, there was a higher prevalence of CMV IgM among cases (28.3%) compared to controls (16.7%) while there was a higher percentage of CMV IgG among cases (91.7%) compared to controls (53.3%).
Conclusion: CMV infection is common in chronic HCV patients and there was no correlation between hepatitis C virus load and CMV IgG but there was positive correlation between hepatitis C virus load and CMV IgM. There was no correlation between hepatitis C virus load and CMV IgG in all patients' subgroups. Also there was no correlation between hepatitis C virus load and CMV IgM in mild and moderate cases but there was positive significant correlation between HCV viral load and CMV IgM in severe cases.