Dried Blood Spot Testing in Confirmed Congenital Cytomegalovirus Discovered by Expanded Targeted Testing

What is the sensitivity of polymerase chain reaction testing for congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) infection and disease from neonatal dried blood spots obtained from a cohort of infants diagnosed with this infection via expanded targeted testing?In this cohort study of 13 078 tested newborns, 80 were diagnosed with cCMV. Combined results from detection of either or genes had a sensitivity of 86.3%; for those with cCMV disease (diagnostic sensitivity), the sensitivity from either or was 85.9%.This study demonstrated a relatively high sensitivity of DBS for cCMV infection and symptomatic disease from a known cCMV-positive cohort; however, these results should be interpreted with caution and cannot be extracted to universal DBS screening performance, especially in asymptomatic infants.

Corresponding Author: Albert H. Park, MD, Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, The University of Utah School of Medicine, 50 N Medical Dr, SOM 3C120, Salt Lake City, UT 84132 (albert.park@hsc.utah.edu).

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