Prevention of Foscarnet Nephrotoxicity

Excerpt

To the Editors: Cytomegalovirus infections are a major cause of morbidity and mortality among immunocompromised patients (1). The most widely used drug therapy for treatment of severe infection with cytomegalovirus is ganciclovir (2). Progressive disease due to ganciclovir-resistant cytomegalovirus has, however, been recently reported (3). Moreover, ganciclovir-induced neutropenia is very often a problem in patients treated with zidovudine (AZT). Phosphonoformate (foscarnet) is a pirophosphate analogue that inhibits the DNA polymerase of influenza viruses and acts against the reverse transcriptase of retroviruses (4). Moreover, foscarnet has been shown to be effective in a patient with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and