Examination of the anterior vascular capsule of the lens: III. Abnormalities in infants with congenital infection.

The disappearance of the anterior vascular capsule of the lens (tunica vasculosa lentis) in the preterm infant has been established to be useful in accurately estimating gestational age between the twenty-seventh and thirty-fourth weeks in infants appropriate or small for gestational age. Six infants have been studied with abnormalities of the anterior vascular capsule of the lens in which congenital TORCH infection has been documented (1 toxoplasmosis, 2 rubella, 2 cytomegalovirus, and 1 herpes simplex virus). Since the anterior vascular capsule generally atrophies symmetrically and completely after the thirty-fourth week of gestation, the findings of marked asymmetry and/or persistence and hypertrophy of the anterior vascular capsule of the lens warrants initiation of TORCH studies in the newborn infant.