Results of a multicenter registry for congenital cytomegalovirus infection in Flanders, Belgium: From prenatal diagnosis over neonatal management to therapy

Background: In 2006, a consensus was made on management and follow up of children with congenital cytomegalovirus infection (cCMV) in Flanders, Belgium. Since 2007 systematic registration of those children was initiated. In this report, focus is on the perinatal data of our population. Study design: Children with confirmed diagnosis of cCMV were eligible for registration. Information on prenatal/ neonatal investigations, management and therapy in those children was obtained. Results: Over 14 years, 1059 children were included. Symptomatic disease was diagnosed in 319/1059 (30,5%) children. Of those 13,5% were classified as mild, 16% as moderate and 70,5% as severe infections. Clinical signs at birth were present in 9,1%, central nervous system involvement in 31,2% and hearing loss in 15,5%. Antiviral therapy was given in 63,9% of patients eligible for therapy. Some of our data seem to confirm some hypotheses regarding cCMV or support the current recommendations for counselling and management. However, some data, although sometimes acquired in small groups, add to the discussion on some topics. Neonatal/prenatal screening or not, correlation between viral load and neonatal outcome or the use of both MRI and US in every child are some of those topics. Conclusions: This is the first report on perinatal characteristics of children with cCMV in Flanders, Belgium during a 14-year period, based on a large multicenter CMV dataset. Worldwide, the systematic registration and followup of children with cCMV infection will become increasingly important to document the impact of forthcoming preventive and therapeutic measures.