Abstract
Background and Aim: Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection affects~1% of live births in the United States. Ten percent of these infants have symptoms at birth and another 10 to 15% develop hearing loss or developmental problems.The aim of this study was to compare CMV infection (IgM and IgG) in infants suspected for intrauterine infection with the controls.
Materials and Methods: A case control study was performed in the Pediatrics department of Hazrat Rasool Akram Hospital in Tehran (2002-2003). We compared the serum CMV antibodies (IgM &IgG-ELISA) of 74 cases suspected of intrauterine infection (mean age =4.7r3.7 months) with that of 65 controls (mean age=5.3r3.1 months).
Results: Acute and previous immunity to CMV (IgM and IgG ) was found in 41.9% (31/74) and 74% (54/74) of the cases, respectively. Meanwhile acute infection (IgM) was observed in 6.2% (4/65) and previous immunity (IgG) in 95.4% (62/65) of the controls. Acute infection (CMV-IgM) was higher in cases (p-value=0.000), but previous immunity (CMV-IgG) was higher in the controls (p value=0.001).
Conclusion: We conclude that like other countries, CMV is the most common cause of intrauterine infection in infants aged less than 6 months as compared to the healthy ones.We prefer, at least in our country, to consider seropositive (CMV-IgM) infants suspected of intrauterine infection (less than 6 months) as congenital form.To arrest the natural progression of congenital CMV, we recommend prolonged course of oral analogues of ganciclovir for children with symptomatic congenital CMV.
Materials and Methods: A case control study was performed in the Pediatrics department of Hazrat Rasool Akram Hospital in Tehran (2002-2003). We compared the serum CMV antibodies (IgM &IgG-ELISA) of 74 cases suspected of intrauterine infection (mean age =4.7r3.7 months) with that of 65 controls (mean age=5.3r3.1 months).
Results: Acute and previous immunity to CMV (IgM and IgG ) was found in 41.9% (31/74) and 74% (54/74) of the cases, respectively. Meanwhile acute infection (IgM) was observed in 6.2% (4/65) and previous immunity (IgG) in 95.4% (62/65) of the controls. Acute infection (CMV-IgM) was higher in cases (p-value=0.000), but previous immunity (CMV-IgG) was higher in the controls (p value=0.001).
Conclusion: We conclude that like other countries, CMV is the most common cause of intrauterine infection in infants aged less than 6 months as compared to the healthy ones.We prefer, at least in our country, to consider seropositive (CMV-IgM) infants suspected of intrauterine infection (less than 6 months) as congenital form.To arrest the natural progression of congenital CMV, we recommend prolonged course of oral analogues of ganciclovir for children with symptomatic congenital CMV.
Keywords
Congenital cytomegalovirus Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Ganciclovir Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SNHL)
References
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Copyright
© 2010, Author(s). This open-access article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which allows for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.