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Maternal IgG avidity, IgM and ultrasound abnormalities: combined method to detect congenital cytomegalovirus infection with sequelae

Journal of Perinatology volume 33, pages 831–835 (2013)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective:

We used maternal immunoglobulin M (IgM), immunoglobulin G (IgG) avidity index (AI) and fetal ultrasonography (US) to effectively detect a congenital cytomegalovirus-infected fetus that would suffer neurological sequelae after birth.

Study Design:

The detecting method was prospectively adapted to 1163 unselected pregnant women. IgM, IgG and IgG-AI were measured at the first prenatal examination (10.8±2.2 weeks of gestation). Advanced US was performed for the IgM-positive women at our center. The urine of 1163 neonates was examined via PCR. All infected neonates were followed for neurological development.

Result:

Most women (83.3%) were seropositive. Among them, 40 (4.1%) were IgM positive. Nine of forty (22.5%) had low AI, of which one showed abnormal US and suffered severe sequelae. The remaining eight had a normal US; however, one infant had hearing impairment. There were another three infected infants with normal development. Their mothers’ serological results were: IgM positive with high AI (n=1); IgG positive; IgM negative with high AI (n=1); and both IgG and IgM negative (n=1).

Conclusion:

This method enabled us to detect infected fetuses having severe sequelae. However, the problem remains of detecting infected fetuses that only have a hearing impairment.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Drs Shigeki Tanaka, Syunichi Noda, Hiroyuki Watanabe and Takashi Matsumura for collecting sera and providing the patient data. This work was partly funded by a grant (No.19591899) from the Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki, Japan

    M Kaneko, H Sameshima, K Kusumoto, A Yamauchi & T Ikenoue

  2. Research Center for Disease Control, Aisenkai Nichinan Hospital, Miyazaki, Japan

    T Minematsu

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  1. M Kaneko
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  2. H Sameshima
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  3. T Minematsu
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  4. K Kusumoto
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Correspondence to M Kaneko.

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Kaneko, M., Sameshima, H., Minematsu, T. et al. Maternal IgG avidity, IgM and ultrasound abnormalities: combined method to detect congenital cytomegalovirus infection with sequelae. J Perinatol 33, 831–835 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/jp.2013.87

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