Cytomegalovirus Infection and Pre-Eclampsia

Abstract

Introduction: Pre-eclampsia is a pregnancy-specific disease characterized by hypertension after 20 weeks of gestation and proteinuria. It is a major cause of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. The pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia is not completely understood. In our study we investigated if there is a potential link between cytomegalovirus infection and pre-eclampsia and if cytomegalovirus infection is the triggering factor of pre-eclampsia.Material and methods: This study was carried out in a secondary care hospital between January 2014 and July 2015. We included two groups of pregnant women: 66 with pre-eclampsia and 62 without pre-eclampsia. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique was performed to detect cytomegalovirus Immunoglobulin G levels in maternal serum.Results: The p-value between median values of positive cytomegalovirus IgG in pre-eclamptic women and in controls was not significant (p:0.867). Odds ratio for cytomegalovirus IgG in pre-eclamptic group (OR:0.967; 95%CI:0.535-1.748) do not differ greatly from the value recorded in the control group (OR:1.036; 95%CI:0.571-1.880). The risk for preterm birth in pre-eclamptic women with cytomegalovirus IgG positive values (OR:1.009; 95%CI:0.329-3.090) was greater than those which had term delivery (OR:0.994; 95%CI:0.472-2.095) but the two values are not very high. We found a positive correlation coefficient (0.217) at a “p” value of 0.08 between white blood cells, but a negative correlation coefficient between the percentage of neutrophils and cytomegalovirus infection.Conclusion: Cytomegalovirus infection may be associated with pre-eclampsia but it is unlikely to be the triggering factor of pre-eclampsia.

The Sero-Prevalence of Cytomegalovirus Infection among Women with Abortion and Intrauterine Death in Erbil City Kurdistan Region , Iraq

“…Finally, the possible association between CMV IgM sero-prevalence and hypertension has also been reported, where none of the women with hypertension was CMV IgM sero-positive. This is in agreement with another study that reported no significant association between CMV IgM and preeclampsia [33].The preeclampsia is a pregnancy-specific disease characterized by high blood pressure which involve impaired placentation and an associated increase in systemic inflammation [33,34]. Other studies, found that the relationship between active maternal CMV infection and preeclampsia, whether this relationship is causal or casual remains to be determined by further studies [22].…”