AUTHOR=Turriziani Colonna Arianna , Buonsenso Danilo , Pata Davide , Salerno Gilda , Chieffo Daniela P. R. , Romeo Domenico M. , Faccia Valerio , Conti Guido , Molle Fernando , Baldascino Antonio , De Waure Chiara , Acampora Anna , Luciano Rita , Santangelo Rosaria , Valentini Piero TITLE=Long-Term Clinical, Audiological, Visual, Neurocognitive and Behavioral Outcome in Children With Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Congenital Cytomegalovirus Infection Treated With Valganciclovir JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine VOLUME=7 YEAR=2020 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2020.00268 DOI=10.3389/fmed.2020.00268 ISSN=2296-858X ABSTRACT=

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most common cause of congenital infection in humans. There are no enough data on long-term outcome of newborns with congenital CMV (cCMV) infection, particularly for those asymptomatic at birth. For this reason, we performed this study to evaluate long-term audiological, visual, neurocognitive, and behavioral outcome in patients with symptomatic and asymptomatic cCMV infection treated with oral Valganciclovir (VGC). Thirty-six newborns with confirmed cCMV infection were evaluated: 12 (33.3%) symptomatic at birth and 24 asymptomatic (66.7%). No one had cognitive impairment. Cognitive assessment scales resulted abnormal in 4/35 patients (11.4%). 11/21 patients (52.4%) achieved abnormal scores in neuropsychological tests. The language evaluation gave pathological results in 6/21 (28.5%) patients. 6/35 patients (17.1%) developed SNHL, all symptomatic at birth except one. None of the 34 patients evaluated developed CMV retinopathy. Our study shows that both symptomatic and asymptomatic newborns with cCMV infection develop long-term sequelae, particularly in the behavioral and communicative areas, independently from the trimester of maternal infection.