Independent risk factors for congenital hearing loss have been identified in newborns with congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV), according to a study published in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery. Elise De Cuyper, MD, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study of newborns with cCMV infection from six secondary and tertiary hospitals over 15 years. The researchers found that 416 and 617 (40.3% and 59.7%) of
1,033 newborns were diagnosed with symptomatic cCMV and asymptomatic cCMV, respectively. Overall, 15.4% presented with congenital hearing loss, 50.3% of whom had isolated hearing loss. Independent factors for congenital hearing loss included petechiae at birth, periventricular cysts on MRI, and seroconversion in the first trimester. Patients with normal hearing had lower viral loads than those with congenital hearing loss (median viral load, 447.0 vs 1,349.5 copies/mL). “These risk factors may be used by clinicians to counsel parents in the prenatal and postnatal periods about the risk of congenital hearing loss,” Dr. De Cuyper and colleagues wrote.
