RT Journal
A1 MEDEARIS DN, JR
T1 CYtomegalovirus syndrome
JF American Journal of Diseases of Children
JO American Journal of Diseases of Children
YR 1979
FD November 1
VO 133
IS 11
SP 1204
OP 1204
DO 10.1001/archpedi.1979.02130110112032
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archpedi.1979.02130110112032
AB Sir.—Dr Hanshaw's "Marginal Comment" (Journal 133:475-476, 1979) on Dr Roberta Ballard et al's article "Acquired Cytomegalovirus Infection in Preterm Infants" (Journal 133:481-485, 1979) was entitled, "A New Cytomegalovirus Syndrome?" I must point out that that syndrome was described in a report that appeared in 1957.1 An analysis of the cases reviewed lead me to the conclusion that there were three syndromes associated with the disease, one of which was commonly characterized by chronic respiratory disease in infants beyond the newborn period. Those infants were premature and died after the neonatal period, and on postmortem examination were shown to have had interstitial pneumonitis. Therefore, I believe the syndrome is neither new nor newly described, though clearly Ballard et al contributed significantly to both its definition and understanding by their serologically and virologically complemented clinical studies, as had Kumar et al2 and Whitley et al3 earlier. I realize