Congenital cytomegalovirus infection in a neonatal intensive care unit in Brazil evaluated by PCR and association with perinatal aspects

• Main Authors: SANTOS Daniel Vítor V., SOUZA Maria Margarida R., GONÇALVES Sérgio Henrique L., COTTA Ana Cristina S., MELO Lorenza A. O., ANDRADE Gláucia M. Q., BRASILEIRO-FILHO Geraldo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade de São Paulo 2000-01-01
• Series: Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo
• Subjects: Cytomegalovirus; Congenital infection; Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU); PCR
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0036-46652000000300003
• ISSN: 0036-4665; 1678-9946

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is the most common congenital infection, affecting 0.4% to 2.3% newborns. Most of them are asymptomatic at birth, but later 10% develop handicaps, mainly neurological disturbances. Our aim was to determine the prevalence of CMV shed in urine of newborns from a neonatal intensive care unit using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and correlate positive cases to some perinatal aspects. Urine samples obtained at first week of life were processed according to a PCR protocol. Perinatal data were collected retrospectively from medical records. Twenty of the 292 cases (6.8%) were CMV-DNA positive. There was no statistical difference between newborns with and without CMV congenital infection concerning birth weight (p=0.11), gestational age (p=0.11), Apgar scores in the first and fifth minutes of life (p=0.99 and 0.16), mother's age (p=0.67) and gestational history. Moreover, CMV congenital infection was neither related to gender (p=0.55) nor to low weight (<2,500g) at birth (p=0.13). This high prevalence of CMV congenital infection (6.8%) could be due to the high sensitivity of PCR technique, the low socioeconomic level of studied population or the severe clinical status of these newborns.