PCR Saliva Testing for Congenital Cytomegalovirus Infection Shows Promise

Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is the most common congenital infection and an important cause of hearing loss in early childhood. Because the majority of infected infants are asymptomatic at birth and develop sensorineural hearing loss later, many infected infants are missed during the neonatal hearing test. Therefore, a practical neonatal screening test is needed to identify at-risk infants earlier. Studies of dried-blood spots for congenital CMV screening have indicated that this technique is not sensitive. Culture of CMV from urine (or saliva) is the traditional method used for clinical diagnosis, but it is impractical for mass newborn screening.

Using standard saliva culture and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing of liqu…