Dr. Murai Éva - Gubányi András szerk.: Parasitologia Hungarica 31. (Budapest, 1998)

Diagnosis of perinatal toxoplasmosis by nested PCR using urine samples Ilona VERÉB

1

, Zsuzsanna SZÉNÁS

I

1

, János SZABÓ

2

, Mária JESZENSZKY

3

, Takuro ENDO

4

, Kenji YAGITA

4 and Erzsébet NAGY

1 department ofClinical Microbiology, Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical University, H-6725 Szeged, Somogyi Béla tér 1, Hungary 2 Department of Medical Genetics, Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical University, H-6725 Szeged, Somogyi u 4, Hungary Paediatric General Practitioners'Surgery, H-6728 Szeged, Tapolcsártyiu. 2, Hungary ^Department of Parasitology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, J162 Tokyo, Toyama 1-23-1, Shinjuku-Ku, Japan (Received 14 August, 1998) Abstract: A general screening project has been established in the region of Szeged, Hungary since 1987 for the early detection of congenital toxoplasmosis in pregnant women. Women with serological results raising the suspicion of acute toxoplasmosis were immediately treated with spiramycin during the course of pregnancy. No case of congenital toxoplasmosis has been found among the infants so far. We applied a molecular biology based method for the direct diagnosis of Toxoplasma genome by nested PCR in order to confirm the infection of infants delivered by women serologically positive in pregnancy. Thirty-three urine samples obtained from asymptomatic newborns of women with acute toxoplasmosis were examined by PCR to compare the findings with their serological results. Only two of the examined 33 urjne samples showed the Toxoplasma-speciiic PCR product after the first step PCR and 14 more samples after the nested PCR. Sixteen out of 33 urine specimens were positive for T. gondii Bl gene. Seventeen urine samples were found to be negative and we were not able to isolate the T gondii Bl gene specific sequence. Key words: Congenital toxoplasmosis, urine sample, nested PCR, Bl gene INTRODUCTION Toxoplasmosis is generally an asymptomatic infection in immunocompetent patients, but maternal toxoplasmosis acquired during pregnancy may have severe consequences for the fetus. If maternal infection is acquired in the first, second and third trimester of pregnancy, the transmission rate of Toxoplasma gondii to the fetus will be approximately 15%, 30 %, 60 %, respectively (Lynfield and Eaton 1995). The