Parvovirus b19 infection among pregnant women in our region and its effect on fetus

ABSTRACT Parvovirus B19 Infection Among Pregnant Women In Our Region And Its Effect On Fetus This study was performed to investigate parvovirus B19 infection among pregnant women in our region and to detect the incidence of B19 infection in cases of nonimmune hydrops fetalis(NIHF), spontaneous abortion and intrauterine fetal death(IUFD). For the diagnosis of B19 infection, nested PCR was used to determine B19 DNA and ELISA for B19 specific IgM and IgG antibodies. Paraffin embedded fetal and placental tissue samples from NIHF(n=33) cases and spontaneous abortion(n=19) cases and as controls placental tissues from 40 normal pregnant women at term were analyzed for B19 DNA by nested PCR. The presence of B19 DNA was detected in 14(42.4%) of NIHF cases and 6(31.5%) of spontaneous abortion cases, while in none of the placental tissues from the control group. In other series of the study, serum samples of pregnant women with NIHF (n=9), spontaneous abortion (n=27), IUFD (n=5) and as control serum samples of 47 healthy pregnant women were tested by PCR and ELISA. B19 infection was diagnosed by both PCR and ELISA tests in 4(44%) of cases with NIHF and in 9(33%) of cases with spontaneous abortion and in 1(20%) of cases with IUFD. In addition, B19 IgG prevalence was found to be 51% in control group(n=47) and 4 samples of control group had IgM only or both IgM and IgG antibodies indicating recent B19 infection with a rate of 8.3%, which may reflect an epidemic period during the study in our region. In conclusion, as our findings show that the incidence of B19 associated NIHF is relatively high, for the early diagnosis of B19 infection in pregnant women with hydrops fetalis nested PCR and ELISA tests should be used together. Keywords: Parvovirus B19, Pregnancy, Hydrops fetalis, Polymerase chain reaction (PCR), B19 IgM antibody, B19 IgG antibody