Recovery of cytomegalovirus from the cervix in pregnancy.

Abstract

Virological studies were performed on urine and cervical swab specimens, and sera were tested for complement fixing antibody to cytomegalovirus to determine the frequency and nature of cytomegalovirus infection in 71 unselected pregnant Navajo women, 81 newborn Navajo babies, and 125 women who attended the prenatal clinic of the Magee-Womens Hospital, Pittsburgh. Cytomegalovirus was recovered from 11% of the women studied but from none of the babies. It was recovered more frequently from the cervix (8%) than from urine (3%), more frequently from the cervices of Navajo women (14%) than from those of Negro (5%) or Caucasian women (4%). The virus was recovered more often in the third trimester than in the second or first, and more often from younger and primiparous women than from those who were older than 25 years and those who had had more than three pregnancies. Cytomegalovirus was recovered with equal frequency from the cervices of those Navajo and Pittsburgh women who had serologic evidence of CMV infection. The outcome of pregnancy did not seem to be affected by this infection although the possibility of low birth weights should be explored further. We would speculate that cytomegalovirus infection of the cervix in pregnancy represents activation of latent infection by hormonally induced local changes, changes to which older, multiparous women are resistant.