TABLE 6.

Quantitative PCR: thresholds and outcomes in different patient settings

Setting	Reference	No. of patients	Breakpoints or associationsa	Outcome
Renal transplant	Fox et al. (57)	103	>106.5 DNA copies per ml of urine	Higher association with CMV disease
	Kühn et al. (102)	58	>1,000 DNA copies per 106 copies of cellular DNA	Highly predictive for CMV disease
	Cope et al. (43)	196	Each 0.25 log10 increase in baseline CMV DNA load in urine	2.8-fold increase in CMV disease risk
	Toyoda et al. (170)	25	>500 DNA copies per 1 μg of total DNA	Increased risk of CMV disease
Liver transplant	Cope et al. (42)	162	Each 0.25 log10 increase in baseline CMV DNA load in whole blood	2.7-fold increase in CMV disease risk
			104.75–105.25 DNA copies per ml	Increased disease probability
Cardiac transplant	Toyoda et al. (170)	95	>500 DNA copies per 1 μg of total DNA	Increased risk of CMV disease
Allogeneic marrow transplant	Zaia et al. (184)	117	>104 DNA copies per ml of plasma	Increased risk of CMV disease after day 100 posttransplant
	Gor et al. (77)	110	>104 DNA copies per ml of whole blood	Odds ratio for disease, 6.46 (95% CIb, 1.5–27.4)
			>105 DNA copies per ml of whole blood	Odds ratio for disease 10.66 (95% CI, 1.8–60.5)
HIV	Shinkai et al. (156)	94	>100 DNA copies per μl of plasma	High predictive values for CMV disease
	Rasmussen et al. (133)	75	>320 copies per μg of DNA	Sustained level associated with CMV retinitis
			>32 copies per 25 μl of plasma
	Bowen et al. (31)	97	Each 0.25 log10 increase in baseline CMV DNA load in whole blood	1.37-fold increase in risk in CMV disease
	Spector et al. (162)	201	Each log10 increase in baseline CMV DNA load in plasma	3.1-fold increase in risk in CMV disease; 2.2-fold increase in mortality

^aShown are specific breakpoints or relative increases in quantitative CMV load that are associated with an increased risk of disease. 

^bCI, confidence interval.