A Primary Cytomegalovirus Infection in Pregnancy Presenting with Unusual Hematologic Manifestations: A Case Report

ABSTRACT

A previously healthy multigravida woman presenting with pyrexia was found to be pancytopenic at 32 weeks' gestation. The leukopenia and the thrombocytopenia responded to supportive therapy. The anemia, which was Coombs' negative, continued and was associated with a drop in fibrinogen, but both eventually returned to normal with time. The isolation of the cytomegalovirus and the detection of an IgM immune response to cytomegalovirus implicated the virus as the agent responsible for the clinical manifestations. The fetus, who was well throughout the maternal illness, had no evidence of anemia or thrombocytopenia at birth; however, intrauterine infection was confirmed by isolation of the virus from the newborn's urine.