3. Results
109 patients with a discharge diagnosis of DRESS were re-validated. Of
these, 3 were excluded, and there were 6 possible, 38 probable, and 62
definite cases of DRESS. Among the 100 cases of probable/definite DRESS,
93 cases had at least one viral marker studied and were analysed for
this study (Supp Fig. 1).
3.1 Demographic and clinical
characteristics
Of the 93 patients, 41 (44%) were men and 52 (56%) were women with an
age range of 17 to 86 (mean (SD): 57 (17)) years (Table 1). The most
common co-morbidities were hypertension (63%), hyperlipidemia(51%),
and renal disease (32%). Associated systemic features include blood
involvement (99%), hepatic involvement (72%), and renal involvement
(44%)(Table 1). Slightly more than half of the cohort (54%) had 3 or
more organs involved, and 37% of the cohort had 2 organ involvement.
3.2 Viral Reactivation
Thirty-nine (42%) patients were found to have viral reactivation of at
least 1 of the human herpesvirus family (Table 2). Of these 39 patients,
12 (13%) patients had 2 viral reactivations and 3 (3%) patients were
found to have all 3 viral reactivation on PCR assay testing.
Specifically, HHV6 reactivation was the most common, occurring in 24/85
cases tested (28%). EBV reactivation occurred in 14/87 (16%) cases
tested and CMV reactivation occurred in 19/89 (21%) cases tested.
Twenty-two (24%) patients had more than 1 set of viral PCR tests
carried out, and among them, 11 patients who initially tested negative,
became positive on serial testing.