SEROLOGICAL CMV SCREENING IN WOMEN OF REPRODUCTIVE AGE AND IN PREGNANT WOMEN

Abstract

Prenatal cytomegalovirus (CMV) screening is not routinely conducted in Bulgaria. According to our previous data, CMV infection is widespread in our region with a total seroprevalence of 78.4%. Such high seroprevalence may have profound effect over the incidence of congenital CMV (cCMV) infections. We aimed in determination of the serological CMV status of both women in reproductive age and pregnant women. Materials and methods: Retrospective: 1612 women in childbearing age (15-49 y) Prospective: 121 pregnant women (14-41 y) ELISA tests for detection of anti-CMV IgM/IgG and for avidity determination of anti-CMV IgG, EUROIMMUN, Germany. Results: From a total of 1612 women in childbearing age, 1362 (84.5%, 95% CI: 82.73 - 86.27) were anti-CMV IgG positive. From a total of 121 pregnant women, 105 (86.8%, 95% CI: 80.77 - 92.83) were anti CMV IgG positive and 12 (9.9%, 95% CI: 4.58 - 15.22%) were anti CMV IgM positive. We got a high IgG avidity index in all seropositive pregnant women, including those with IgM positive results. Conclusions: CMV infection is highly prevalent in women in reproductive age in Bulgaria and the estimated hypothetical population transmission risk in our region is a total of 7%. We compared the preliminary retrospective data with the data obtained from a real situation of 121 pregnancies and got very similar results. Since almost 10% of the pregnant women had evidence of acute or recent infection, this required us to perform the anti-CMV IgG avidity test. We got a high IgG avidity index in all pregnant women.

Keywords

• cmv
• serological screening
• reproductive age
• pregnancy
• elisa