EARLY HEARING DETECTION AND INTERVENTION VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
MARCH 2-5, 2021

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9/24/2018 | 11:15 AM - 11:45 AM | The Use of CMV qPCR in the Blood as an Indicator for Treatment for Congenital CMV Infection | Diamond Ballroom I

The Use of CMV qPCR in the Blood as an Indicator for Treatment for Congenital CMV Infection

Background: Recent guidelines recommend antiviral treatment for moderate to severely symptomatic cases of cCMV infection. However, time from diagnosis to completion of all investigations to determine clinical severity can be long and costly, resulting in delays in treatment initiation. The objective of this study was to determine if baseline qPCR in the blood could identify infants who met treatment criteria according to the recent consensus classification. Methods: Retrospective study of children diagnosed with cCMV infection at CHU Sainte-Justine, Montreal, Canada, between 2008 and 2016, for whom CMV qPCR was done in the blood at baseline (<= 3 weeks of age) along with a complete diagnostic workup. Children were classified as moderate to severely symptomatic, mildly symptomatic, asymptomatic with isolated sensorineural hearing loss, or asymptomatic, and the association between CMV blood qPCR and clinical severity group was determined. Results: Forty-seven patients were included in the analysis; 31 cases (66%) were categorized as moderate-severely symptomatic, none mildly symptomatic, 4 (8.5%) asymptomatic with isolated hearing loss, and 12 (26%) asymptomatic. Median viral load was significantly higher among infants with moderate to severe disease vs. those asymptomatic or asymptomatic with isolated SNHL (13 736 vs. 1876 copies/ml, p=0.004), and again comparing infants with moderate to severe disease or asymptomatic with isolated SNHL vs. asymptomatic (17 736 vs. 1496 copies/ml, p<0.001). The probability of meeting treatment criteria (moderate to severe disease) was then determined using regression analysis. The risk of requiring treatment showed a sigmoidal shape from VL 1000 to 10 000 copies/ml, crossing the 50% probability at a level of 10 000 copies/ml, with a threshold of 100 000 copies/ml approaching a 100% probability of requiring treatment. Conclusion: These results suggest that baseline CMV blood qPCR could have a role in identifying infants who would benefit from antiviral therapy, pending a full diagnostic workup.

To understand the role of PCR in the diagnostic workup of cCMV infection
To determine whether the PCR value can reliably predict which infants will require treatment
To review the impact of this predictive value of PCR on screening programs

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Presenters/Authors

Mina Smiljkovic (), mina.m.smiljkovic@gmail.com;
Mina Smiljkovic is currently a paediatric infectious diseases fellow at the Hospital for Sick Children, working on the Sainte-Justine cCMV cohort as her research project through fellowship.