Evaluation of cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNA quantification in dried blood spots: retrospective study of CMV congenital infection.

We compared two protocols for extracting DNA from dried blood spots for cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNA detection and quantification by real-time PCR. Both extraction methods were reliable for the retrospective diagnosis of CMV congenital infection. Quantification of CMV DNA was valuable after normalization of viral loads with albumin gene PCR amplification results.