Outcome in children with symptomatic congenital cytomegalovirus infection.

To determine factors that are associated with adverse developmental outcome after congenital cytomegalovirus infection, we reviewed the clinical, laboratory, and radiographic findings in 18 children with symptomatic congenital cytomegalovirus infections. When children with adverse outcomes (intelligence or developmental quotients of 50 or less, n = 10) were compared with children with mild sequelae (intelligence or developmental quotients of 70 or higher, n = 8), we found no relationship between developmental outcome and neonatal clinical features (birth weight, jaundice, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, or petechiae). With the possible exception of intracranial calcifications, no single clinical or radiographic feature was associated with a specific developmental outcome. However, children who had postnatal microcephaly, postnatal seizures, and an abnormal central nervous system imaging study were more likely to have severe developmental sequelae.