Hearing test-triggered screening of CMV-infection in newborns

Introduction:

Congenital CMV infection is one of the most common reasons for malformations, including hearing impairment in developing countries. With 20% CMV infection is considered to be the most frequent non-genetical cause for impairment of hearing in newborns. Until today no uniform screening process exists for connatal CMV infection. Due to actual literature therapy of connatal CMV infection is most effective in early detected infections.

Methods:

in cooperation with the neonatologic department of our clinic we developed a screening program in order to establish an early detection of CMV positive neweborns to initiate a symptomatic and antiviral therapy. Therefore all newborns presenting in our clinic with age of 21 days or younger and showed abnormalities in newborn hearing screening were tested for CMV infection by taking a swap of the oral mucosa. CMV positive newborns were sent to the paediatric department for further diagnostic and therapy.

Results:

In the period from 06/2015 to 06/2017 1440 hearing screenings in newborns were performed. 73 newborns showed abnormalities in the hearing screening test so that a mucosal swap was taken. 3 newborns were tested positive for CMV.

Conclusion:

In our survey we found a far lower number of newborns with abnormal screening of hearing beeing CMV positive than we expected from current literature. The study will be continued to increase the study population to attain a more reliable result.

Publication History

Publication Date:
18 April 2018 (online)