Cytomegalovirus Colitis and Subsequent New Diagnosis of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in an Immunocompetent Host: A Case Study and Literature Review

Patient: Male, 40 Final Diagnosis: CMV colitis Symptoms: Abdominal pain • diarrhea • jaundice Medication: — Clinical Procedure: Flexible sigmoidoscopy • colonoscopy Specialty: Family Medicine OBJECTIVE: Rare co-existance of disease or pathology BACKGROUND: Infection with gastrointestinal cytomegalovirus in an immunocompetent host is a rather rare occurrence in the literature. There are a few reports of gastrointestinal infection in the immunocompetent who are then subsequently given a new diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease. It is speculated that the initial cytomegalovirus colitis infection triggers the onset of inflammatory bowel disease. CASE REPORT: Herein we report a case of cytomegalovirus colitis and new diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease identified in a 40-year-old immunocompetent adult man who presented with gastrointestinal symptoms and disseminated cytomegalovirus infection requiring anti-viral therapy, which successfully treated the episode of cytomegalovirus infection. He then went on to have persistent symptomatic inflammatory bowel disease confirmed by pathology. CONCLUSIONS: In this paper we will review the literature and explore the rare case of cytomegalovirus colitis in the immunocompetent host and discuss the pathology, physiology, diagnosis, and treatment of cytomegalovirus colitis.