CONGEN1TAL CYTOMEGALOVIRUS INFECTION AND MALFORMATION OF CORTICAL DEVELOPMENT

Impairnents of neuromotor development, neurologic deficits and epileptic syndromes in infants can be associated with magnetic resonance imaging diagnosis of malformations of cortical development (MCD). These are due to disorders in proliferation, migration or organization of cells during embryonal development of the cortex. Congenital Cytomegalovirus infection is considered among the possible causes of MCD. The assessment of the role of such an infection in disorders diagnosed some months after birth may be hampered by the fact that CMV isolation from samples of infants >4 weeks old doesn't allow the distinction between congenitally and postnatally acquired infections. We studied the occurrence of congenital CMV infection in children asymptomatic at birth diagnosed as MCD cases in early infancy. For this purpose we used a previously set-up method that proved 100% sensible and 98% specific in diagnosing congenital CMV infection (1). CMV DNA was extracted from newborn dried blood spots (DBS) collected at birth on Guthrie cards. The virai DNA was detected through a nested PCR amplifying a 100 bp region in the gp58 gene followed by agarose gel electrophoresis. A congenital CMV infection was diagnosed in 4 out 8 cases and in none of 9 control children with cerebral malformations without signs of MCD. These preliminary results confine that congenital CMV infection is involved in MCD. The search for CMV DNA in DBS is a useful tool for ascertaining the role of congenital CMV infection in neurologic damage occurring in early infancy.