ArticleUltrasound in obstetrics & gynecology : the official journal of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology2025
Detection of human cytomegalovirus cell-free DNA in pregnant women with symptomatically infected fetuses: proof-of-concept study.
Article in Ultrasound in obstetrics & gynecology : the official journal of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- A comprehensive toolkit for analyzing cell-free DNA genomic sequencing data in liquid biopsy.iScience · 2026Article
- Expanding the scope of non-invasive prenatal screening.Nature genetics · 2025Review
- Current status of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of congenital cytomegalovirus disease: a call to action.Current opinion in infectious diseases · 2025Review
- Screening and prenatal diagnosis of fetal cytomegalovirus infection: experience in a western Chinese city.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo evaluate the presence and levels of cytomegalovirus (CMV) cell-free DNA (cfDNA) fragments in women pregnant with a fetus with symptomatic congenital CMV (cCMV).
methodsThe study comprised nine women whose fetuses were diagnosed with cCMV between June 2019 and July 2024 at 20 + 4 to 34 + 1 weeks' gestation (n = 8) or neonatally (n = 1) after primary or non-primary maternal infection. In eight women, cfDNA sequencing data from a single timepoint were analyzed, either retrospectively, on data generated from 11-13 weeks' gestation (n = 5) or prospectively, on data generated from 20-26 weeks' gestation (n = 3), upon the diagnosis of cCMV. In one woman (Case 6), CMV-cfDNA analysis was performed at four timepoints: at 12 + 5 weeks (routine non-invasive prenatal testing); 23 + 3 weeks (cCMV diagnosis); and 30 min and 12 h after termination of pregnancy (TOP) at 23 + 6 weeks.
resultsCMV-cfDNA was detectable in all cases. Mostly low levels of CMV-cfDNA were observed in samples obtained at 11-13 weeks' gestation and consistently high levels of CMV-cfDNA were present in samples obtained at cCMV diagnosis. In Case 6, the level of maternal CMV-cfDNA decreased substantially in the samples tested after TOP, compared with samples obtained before TOP.
conclusionsLow levels of CMV-cfDNA detected between 11 and 13 weeks may be a biomarker for severe fetal cCMV. CMV-cfDNA analysis in the first trimester could be of added value in CMV screening, particularly for non-primary maternal infections that cannot be identified using other methods. However, as CMV-cfDNA is detectable in many pregnant women in the first trimester, further studies are needed to determine the predictive value of CMV-cfDNA as a biomarker for the development of severe fetal cCMV. High levels of CMV-cfDNA at fetal cCMV diagnosis and low levels directly after TOP suggest that the level of CMV-cfDNA in maternal plasma may not necessarily reflect an active maternal infection, but could indicate a placental infection. © 2025 The Author(s). Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
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