Association Between Cerebrospinal Fluid Load And Hearing Loss In Congenital Sysptomatic Cytomegalovirus Infection

Objective To determine the relationship between the virus load of cerebrospinalfluid (CSF) and sensorineural hearing loss(SNHL) in newborns with symptomaticcongenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection.Methods Between January2011and January2013, we studied685newborns withsuspicion of CMV infection, who were admitted to the Chengzhou chirldren’s hospital.126of the685newborns were identified as CMV congenital infection by detection ofthe virus DNA in urine using real-time polymerase chain reaction(PCR) within thesecond week of life.42of the126newborns were classified as having symptomaticinfection. PCR was done on CSF samples from42newborns. All of42newbornswere assessed audiological function by brain stem auditory evoked potential (BAEP)at birth,at6and12months of age. finally,we only included36newborns in this study.Statistical analysis was done to determine the the prevalence of positive CSF PCRresult in newborns with symptomatic CMV infection,to determine the the prevalenceof SNHL between children with positive CSF PCR and negative CSF PCR,to analysethe level of virus load between children with normal hearing and hearing loss,and todetermine the relationship between the CSF virus load and urine virus load.Results1Of the36newborns,15(41.7%) had positive CSF PCR result,17(47.2%) hadSNHL.2No significant difference of the prevalence of SNHL was observed between childrenwith positive CSF PCR and negative CSF PCR(P=0.194).3In newborns with positive CSF PCR result,the level of CSF virus load was notdifferent between the newborns with normal hearing and the hearing loss.(P=0.36）4 Among children with positive CSF PCR result, the level of CSF virus load did notshow a trend toward correlating with the level of urine virus load（P=0.155）.5the mean urine virus load was not different between the newborns with positive CSFPCR and negative CSF PCR.6Of the30ears with SNHL, most of the patients showed abnormalities withprevalence of an increase of the latency of waves I, II and V in the BAEPevaluation.the waves showed no significant difference between the children withpositive CSF PCR and the children with negative CSF PCR（P＞0.05）.7Between children with positive CSF PCR and negative CSF PCR, no significantdifference of the severity of SNHL was observed.（P＞0.05）。Conclusions A positive CSF PCR result and the CSF virus load did not correlatewith the prevalence,the severity,and the BAEP waves of SNHL.