Adenovirus pneumonitis successfully treated with intravenous ribavirin.

Adenovirus infections are a frequent cause of severe complications in the post allogeneic bone marrow transplantation period, and to date, no established form of treatment exists. We report the case of an autologous bone marrow transplant recipient who developed adenovirus pneumonitis which was successfully treated with intravenous ribavirin.

Hb Anamosa or alpha 2(111)(G18)Ala-->Val beta 2 (alpha 2 mutation) and Hb Mulhacen or alpha 2(123)(H6)Ala-->Ser beta 2 (alpha 1 mutation) are two silent, stable variants detected by sequencing of amplified DNA.

We have identified silent amino acid substitutions in two alpha chain variants present in families from Iowa, USA, and Granada, Spain. Both involve an alanine residue in the core peptide, namely Ala-->Val at position 111 (codon change in the alpha 2 gene; GCC->GTC; Hb Anamosa) and Ala-->Ser at position 123 (codon change in the alpha 1 gene; GCC-->TCC; Hb Mulhacen). The two variants are stable. Sequencing of the amplified alpha 2- and alpha 1-globin genes greatly facilitated the characterization of the two variants.