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

Abstract

Background: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a major causative agent of prenatal and perinatal infections and may lead to important complications on pregnancy. Objective: To find out the sero-prevalence of CMV IgM and IgG and its association with the history of abortion and / or intra-uterine death, as well as, to study the association between the mentioned prevalence with some socio-demographic variables. Patients and Methods: A case-control study was performed during the period between October 2018 to April 2019 in Erbil city (Kurdistan region, Iraq) on 75 pregnant women with history of abortion and / or intra-uterine death; and 75 healthy women with normal pregnancy who served as a control group. The women had been referred to the central laboratory department of the Maternity Teaching Hospital for the detection and evaluation of sero-prevalence of CMV specific IgM and IgG markers. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Health Sciences College, Hawler Medical University and informed consent was obtained from the patients and controls. Results: The sero-prevalence of CMV-specific IgG was 100% in each of the study groups. The sero- prevalence of CMV-specific IgM was 8% among women with abnormal pregnancy, while, none of the women of the control group had a positive IgM. No significant association was detected between CMV-specific IgM sero-prevalence and any of the studied sociodemographic factors as well as risk factors including abortion, intrauterine death and hypertension (p>0.05). Conclusion: The association was detected between the CMV-specific IgM sero-prevalence and history of abortion and / or intra-uterine death but no significant may be due to small sample size in the present study.