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Usefulness of dried blood spots in the diagnosis of congenital CMV

Journal of Perinatology volume 33, pages 495–496 (2013)Cite this article

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We have reported on a baby who had a difficult management because of the incongruity between the severe clinical symptoms and maternal history that lacked evidence of active infection during pregnancy. We are grateful to Dr Atkinson for the interest in our work and for the opportunity of discussion.

The sensitivity of dried blood spot (DBS) tests in detecting congenital cytomegalovirus that are described in English studies (74.2% and 71.8%) refer to populations of, respectively, 31 and 39 neonates,1 therefore, not wide enough to lead to a definite conclusion about the accuracy of the test. The conclusion is in fact the same as we proposed in the discussion of the management of our patient: if the DBS test is negative, this will help in excluding a congenital infection whenever the other clinical and laboratory data of both the neonate and the mother are consistent. Limits derive from the PCR method used, from the viral load in the blood, from quality of the DBS and finally from the time elapsed since the time of sampling.

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References

  1. Atkinson C, Walter S, Sharland M, Tookey P, Luck S, Peckham C et al. Use of dried blood spot in the retrospective diagnosis of congenital CMV. J Med Virol 2009; 81 (8): 1394–139 8.

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  2. Boppona SB, Ross SA, Novak Z, Shimamura M, Tolan RW, Palmer AL et al. Dried blood spot real-time polymerase chain reaction assays to screen newborns for congenital cytomegalovirus infection. JAMA 2010; 303: 1375–1382.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neonatology, Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, Rome, Italy

    F Piersigilli & C Auriti

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  1. F Piersigilli
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  2. C Auriti
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Correspondence to F Piersigilli.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Piersigilli, F., Auriti, C. Usefulness of dried blood spots in the diagnosis of congenital CMV. J Perinatol 33, 495–496 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/jp.2012.143

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