First-trimester intrauterine Zika virus infection and brain pathology: prenatal and postnatal neuroimaging findings

Abstract

What's Already Known about this Topic? Intrauterine Zika virus infection has been associated with several malformations of the central nervous system, mainly microcephaly. What does this Study Add? We present a case of congenital Zika virus infection in which perinatal brain pathology was investigated using multiple diagnostic procedures. Maternal serology for Zika virus was positive when performed at 31 weeks, but the onset of clinical symptoms was at 10 weeks, indicating that early pregnancy infection may result in a long viral shedding and result in severe brain malformations that become detectable only later in pregnancy.