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To the Editor: Clinically meaningful cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is not limited to immunocompromised hosts,¹ as recently demonstrated in critically ill immunocompetent patients.² Cytomegalovirus may have an increasing effect in an aging society. Cross-sectional analyses have shown its association with frailty and functional impairment^3-4 and, along with seropositivity to other herpesviruses, an association with impaired cognition among community-dwelling older individuals.⁵ We therefore prospectively studied the association between CMV IgG levels and mortality.

Methods

These analyses are secondary analyses of the Drugs and Evidence-Based Medicine in the Elderly (DEBATE) trial. The 400 participants were recruited from 4821 randomly selected community-living individuals in Helsinki, Finland, during 1999 and 2000.⁶ The DEBATE trial was approved by the ethics committee and participants provided written consent. The mean age was 80 years (range, 75-90 years; 65% women) (Table 1), and all participants had a history of cardiovascular disease that was stable at baseline.

Table appears in full text version. Table 1. . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Timo E. Strandberg, MD, PhD
timo.strandberg@oulu.fi
Unit of General Practice
University Hospital of Oulu
Oulu, Finland

Kaisu H. Pitkala, MD, PhD
Unit of General Practice

Reijo S. Tilvis, MD, PhD
Clinic of Internal Medicine and Geriatrics
University Central Hospital of Helsinki
Helsinki, Finland

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