Human cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus infection in inflammatory bowel disease: Need for mucosal viral load measurement

Figure 1 Refractory inflammatory bowel disease patients (full circles) showed statistically significant higher values in comparison with non-refractory patients (empty circles) and controls (empty rhombuses; panels A and B). A peculiar distribution is observed with non-refractory patients displaying values always below 10³ and controls below 10² copies/10⁵ cells (red dotted lines). Within the refractory group, the macroscopically diseased areas (full triangles) carried DNA viral loads invariably over 10³ copies/10⁵ cells compared to non-diseased mucosa (empty triangles; panels C and D). The black bars indicate the median values. NS: Not significant; HCMV: Human Cytomegalovirus; EBV: Epstein-Barr virus.