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Volume 22, Number 6—June 2016
Dispatch

Microcephaly in Infants, Pernambuco State, Brazil, 2015

Microcephaly Epidemic Research Group1

Main Article

Table

Characteristics of 104 newborns with microcephaly seen at 2 referral hospitals, Pernambuco State, Brazil, August–December 2015*

Finding Severe microcephaly, 
no. positive/no. tested (%) Microcephaly, 
no. positive/no. tested (%) p value†
Mother
Gestational age of newborn, N = 104
At term, 37 wks to 41 wks 6 d 59/70 (84) 34/34 (100) 0.019
Preterm, <37 wks 10/70 (14) 0/34 (0)
Postterm, >42 wks 1/70 (1) 0/34 (0)
Self-reported rash during pregnancy, n = 100
41/68 (60)
18/32 (56)
0.702
Newborn‡
Female sex, N = 104 38/70 (54) 16/34 (47) 0.489
Brain CT scan or MRI, n = 58
Calcifications 43/45 (96) 11/13 (85) 0.208
Malformation of cortical development, including lissencephaly 32/45 (71) 8/13 (61) 0.517
Ventriculomegalia 32/45 (71) 6/13 (46) 0.102
Abnormal findings in transfontanellar ultrasound, n = 32 23/23 (100) 6/7 (86) 0.092
Abnormal findings in fundoscopy,§ n = 33 8/29 (28) 0/4 (0) 0.550
Abnormal findings in OAE,§ n = 23 2/16 (12) 0/7 (0) 1.000
Newborn serology
Nontreponemal syphilis test, n = 62 2/42 (5) 1/20 (5) 1.000
Dengue virus IgM, n = 34 2/25 (8) 0/9 (0) 1.000
Cytomegalovirus IgM, n = 33 0/24 (0) 0/9 (0) NA
Cytomegalovirus IgG, n = 34 19/23 (83) 8/11 (73) 0.245
Toxoplasmosis IgM, n = 44 0/37 (0) 0/7 (0) NA
Toxoplasmosis IgG, n = 47 24/39 (61) 5/8 (62) 1.000
Rubella IgM, n = 54 0/42 (0) 0/12 (0) NA
Rubella IgG, n = 88 55/56 (98) 28/32 (87) 0.396
Herpes IgM, n = 19 1/15 (7) 0/4 (0) 1.000
Herpes IgG, n = 18 13/14 (93) 4/4 (100) 1.000

*Severe microcephaly, head circumference <30 cm; microcephaly, head circumference 30–32 cm. CT, computed tomography; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging; NA, not applicable; OAE, otoacoustic emission test;.
†χ2 comparing frequencies between the 2 groups.
‡Of the 98 infants with documented birthweight, average weight was 2,716 g (range 1,630–3,890 g) for term and postterm newborns and 1,918 g (range 1,135–2,580 g) for preterm.
§Of the 33 children examined by fundoscopy, 24% had abnormal findings, including rarefaction of the retinal pigment epithelium, atrophic macular lesions, macular scarring and macular reflection juxtafoveal changes. Of the 23 children tested with OAE, 9% had an abnormal result. The frequency of abnormal results in preterm vs. term and postterm newborns for OAE and fundoscopy was similar (<30%).

Main Article

Page created: May 16, 2016
Page updated: May 16, 2016
Page reviewed: May 16, 2016
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