Saliva pools for screening of human cytomegalovirus using real-time PCR

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Saliva pools for screening of human cytomegalovirus using real-time PCR Cláudia Fernandes 1 & Augusta Marques 1 & Maria de Jesus Chasqueira 1 & Mónica Cró Braz 2 & Ana Rute Ferreira 2 & Ana Serrão Neto 2 & Cândida Mendes 3 & David Lito 3 & Maria-Favila Menezes 4 & Maria José Sousa 4 & Paulo Paixão 1 Received: 12 June 2020 / Revised: 9 September 2020 / Accepted: 9 October 2020 # The Author(s) 2020

Abstract Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is the leading congenital infection agent in the world. The importance of screening this infection has been debated, as 10–15% of the asymptomatic newborns with HCMV at birth will present late sequelae. The aim of this study was to test the feasibility of using saliva pools from newborns in a screening program for congenital HCMV infection, in two Portuguese hospitals. The screening was based on the use of pools of 10 saliva samples for detection of viral DNA by real-time PCR. Whenever there was a positive pool, the samples were tested individually, and for each positive sample the result was confirmed with a urine sample collected in the first 2 weeks of life. The study involved 1492 newborns. One hundred and fifty pools were screened, with 14 positive results in saliva, but only 10 were confirmed in urine samples, giving a prevalence of congenital HCMV infection in both hospitals of 0.67% (CI95% 0.36 to 1.23%). Conclusion: The overall prevalence of congenital HCMV infection in both hospitals was 0.67%. The use of saliva pools proved to be effective for the screening of this congenital infection, allowing timely screening and confirmation in a large population, with associated cost reduction. What is Known: • Newborn screening for HCMV is desirable. • Saliva is a good and practical sample. What is New: • The feasibility of using saliva pools for a large-scale screening. • The cost reduction of this strategy.

Keywords HCMV . Newborn . Cost reduction . Pools Communicated by Nicole Ritz Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-020-03842-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Paulo Paixão [email protected] Cláudia Fernandes [email protected] Augusta Marques [email protected] Maria de Jesus Chasqueira [email protected] Mónica Cró Braz [email protected] Ana Rute Ferreira [email protected]

Ana Serrão Neto [email protected] Cândida Mendes [email protected] David Lito [email protected] Maria-Favila Menezes [email protected] Maria José Sousa [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article

Eur J Pediatr

Abbreviations HCMV Human cytomegalovirus SNHL Sensorineural hearing loss

Introduction Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is the leading congenital infection agent, with an incidence ranging between 0.2 and 2% worldwide [1, 2]. In industrialized countries, an estimated 0.6 to 0.7% of newborns are congenitally infected with this virus [1, 3–5]. Long-term sequelae of