‘Owl's eye’ cells in a cervical smear of a transplant recipient: Don't forget to inform the referring physician

Abstract

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infected cells in cervical smears are a rare finding but may have severe consequences. We describe the presence of characteristic "owl eye" cells in a conventional cervical smear. Medical history revealed a liver transplantation from a CMV seropositive donor 1 yr earlier. The patient experienced a delayed primary CMV infection 6 mo after transplantation. The current CMV infection was considered to be either a persisting manifestation of that primary infection or a reactivation. Since the patient experienced no clinical symptoms, it was decided to "wait and see". Infections with cytomegalovirus in immunocompromised patients may present with aspecific symptoms, but may lead to severe organ-threatening disease such as acute or chronic transplantation loss in transplant recipients. Although in the present case no serious consequences occurred, we stress that it is important to recognize these cells and report this finding promptly to the referring physician to prevent possible severe morbidity.