Efficiency of CMV serodiagnosis during pregnancy in daily laboratory routine.

Background: Maternal acute primary cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection during the first trimester may cause severe long-term sequelae in newborns. For risk assessment, serological screening is routinely performed in pregnant women based on IgM, IgG and avidity tests using whole-virus antigen. A recent study evaluated the diagnostic value of recombinant protein-based ELISAs as second-line tests in pregnancy CMV screening, including anti-p52 IgM and anti-gB IgG as markers defining the early and late phase of infection, respectively.