92 children with virologically confirmed asymptomatic congenital CMV(ACCMV) infection and 27 uninfected controls were prospectively followed in a longitudinal study of neurodevelopmental outcome. Mean age at last follow-up was 5.9 years, range 10 mos.-10.8 years for ACCMV patients; control mean age 7.5 years, range 19 mos. - 10.5 years. Head CT was performed in 81/92 ACCMV patients (mean age 3.0 mos.). 26/81 (32%) patients had at least one CT abnormality including: cerebral lucencies 17, ventricular dilatation 6, calcifications 2, dilatation of extracerebral spaces and cisterns, 3 each. 11/92 (12%) with ACCMV had sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). No difference in IQ was seen between patients with ACCMV (mean 105.5, range 79-126) and controls (mean 105.4, range 76-127). IQ distributions are shown in thetable:

Table 1

21/92 (23%) of ACCMV patients and 8/27 (30%) controls had minor motor impairment (MMI); none had severe impairment. Although no single CT abnormality was predictive of neurodevelopmental sequelae, intracranial calcification and cerebral lucency taken together correlated with SNHL (p = 0.027).

Despite an increased incidence of SNHL, children with ACCMV have comparable intelligence and psychomotor development to that of uninfected children.