Detection of Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Infection in Wheezing Infants by Urine DNA and Serum IgG Testing

Abstract

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to investigate the involvement of CMV infection in wheezing infants and the association between CMV-DNA and immunoglobulins (Igs). MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 243 wheezing infants and 3,000 parturients were enrolled in this study. The infants were randomly grouped to receive blood HCMV-DNA tests (n=46) or urine HCMV-DNA tests (n=197). Furthermore, all participants had serum CMV-specific IgM and IgG testing. Afterwards, 10 HCMV-IgG positive infants were randomly selected for simultaneous blood and urine HCMV-DNA tests, and 25 HCMV-IgG positive puerperants were randomly selected for urine HCMV-DNA tests. RESULTS The detection rate of urine HCMV-DNA was significantly higher than that of blood HCMV-DNA (67.5% vs. 13.0%, p<0.001). Fifteen (6.2%) and 190 (80.0%) infants showed positive CMV-specific IgM and IgG results (p<0.001), respectively. Among the 10 HCMV-IgG positive infants tested further, only two infants had positive HCMV-DNA blood tests, while all of the 10 infants had positive HCMV-DNA urine tests. However, HCMV-DNA was not detected in the urine of the 25 randomly selected parturients positive for HCMV-IgG. CONCLUSIONS CMV infection may be one of the causes of wheezing in infants; CMV infection can be detected by urine-HCMV-DNA and serum HCMV-IgG testing. Infants were more susceptible to CMV infection than parturients.

Figure 1

Study flow. (A) The enrolled 243 infants were randomly grouped for blood (n=46) and urine (n=197) HCMV-DNA tests. (B) All enrolled 243 infants received serum HCMV-IgM and HCMV-IgG tests. Afterwards, 10 HCMV-IgG positive infants were randomly selected for blood and urine HCMV-DNA tests. (C) A total of 3,000 parturients were tested for serum HCMV-IgM and HCMV-IgG. Afterwards, 25 HCMV-IgG positive parturients were randomly selected for urine HCMV-DNA test.