Seroprevalence of cytomegalovirus Antibodies among pregnant women and it’s correlation with spontaneous abortion in Khartoum state

Abstract

Background: Cytomegalovirus is a common virus that infects most people at some time during their lives. It becomes dormant for a while and may reactivate later. In pregnant women, intrauterine infection may be  associated with congenital abnormalities, intrauterine growth retardation and intrauterine death of the fetus as well as late sequelae such as  developmental delay, blindness and congenital deafness.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of CMV infection among women presenting with spontaneous abortion to major hospitals in Khartoum State and to find out the correlation between CMV infection and spontaneous abortion in the group under study.
Methodology: In this study a total of 180 spontaneously aborted females, and 80 normally delivered females (control) were included. Three mls of venous blood were collected from each subject under study in a plain  container allowed to clot and after clot retraction centrifuged at 4000rpm. The sera were then separated and stored at -20c0 in a deep freezer. The stored sera were tested for CMV IgG and IgM antibodies using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (BIOTECH –ENGLAND).
Results: In the case group, 176 (97.8%) women were positive for Anti-CMV IgG and 69 (38.3%) for Anti-CMV IgM. The CMV antibodies significantly co related with increasing age (P-value = -0.0185), the number of abortion (P-value = -0.0177) and congenital malformation in children (P value= 0.037).
Conclusion: Seroprevalence of CMV antibodies was found to be 97.8% and 38.3% for IgG & IgM respectively. There was significant association  between CMV infection and frequency of abortion, age and congenital  malformation in children.

Key words: CMV, seroprevalnce, pregnancy, spontaneous abortion, Sudan