Table 3.

Diagnostic methods of CMV, advantages, and disadvantages

Diagnostic method	Advantages	Disadvantages
Anti-CMV immunoglobulins	Might be used for screening for latent CMV infection	Low sensitivity and specificity for active infection
CMV PCR assays	High sensitivity and specificity and considered gold standard, quick easy to perform, gives information of viral load, can be used for wide variety of samples	Better to be performed on whole blood, qualitative might be so sensitive and detect “innocent viral shedding” quantitative might be superior
CMV antigen assays	Quick and easy to perform, has comparable sensitivity and specificity to PCR	Might be inferior to PCR in case of leukopenia
Viral culture	Highly specific, can be performed on wide variety of samples	Time-consuming, low sensitivity
Histopathology	Highly specific, confirm CMV disease and pathogenicity and invasiveness	Invasive, low sensitivity, liable to sampling error, needs skilled pathologist and so operator dependent