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CASE REPORT article

Front. Pediatr.

Sec. Pediatric Infectious Diseases

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1558820

This article is part of the Research Topic Methods In Pediatric Infectious Diseases 2024 View all 7 articles

Congenital cytomegalovirus retinitis of prematurity: A case report and literature review

Provisionally accepted
  • Children's Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    AbstractIntroduction: Ophthalmopathy induced by cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is most common in immunodeficient patients without other congenital infections. This paper reports a clinical case of retinitis due to congenital CMV infection in a preterm infant and reviews the relevant literature. Case presentation: A 2-day-old female infant at 36+2 gestation weeks presented with a 2-day history of scattered bleeding spots across the body, bleeding tendency, thrombocytopenia, positive blood CMV IgM, and blood and urine CMV DNA levels significantly above the detection limit by PCR analysis. Maternal serological examination indicated blood CMV IgM positivity. The laboratory test results, CMV IgM positivity in the mother's blood and the presence of cytomegalocytes were used to confirm a diagnosis of congenital CMV infection.Later, antiviral treatment with ganciclovir was provided for 3 weeks. Fundus examination indicated a few white exudates along the peripheral retina in both eyes, with a white sheath of peripheral retinal vessels above the temporal plane in the right eye. A diagnosis of CMV retinitis was considered after obtaining abnormal fluorescein fundus angiography results. Ganciclovir was administered at 0.5 mg weekly into the vitreous cavities of the eyes for 3 weeks, and the vascular white sheaths disappeared. Retinitis recurred at 6 months of age, and antiviral treatment was recommended. However, the family rejected it.Conclusion: Congenital CMV retinitis is dangerous; an ophthalmological examination must be performed when a child is diagnosed. Early intervention will improve the prognosis and overall survival quality of the child.Keywords congenital; cytomegalovirus infection; retinitis; prematurity; ganciclovir

    Keywords: congenital; cytomegalovirus infection; retinitis; prematurity; ganciclovir, congenital, Cytomegalovirus infection, Retinitis, prematurity, Ganciclovir

    Received: 11 Jan 2025; Accepted: 19 Mar 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Li, Sun, Jin, Zhao and Zhu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Xueping Zhu, Children's Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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