Collecting a sample of saliva from a newborn can be used to screen for cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, a leading cause of hearing loss in children.
The assertion follows successful trials led by University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA, involving some 35,000 babies across the US.
It was found that liquid samples of saliva correctly identified every baby born with the infection, while 97.4 percent of babies were identified from dried samples.
The research project, led by UAB researchers Drs Suresh Boppana and Karen Fowler, was carried out after an earlier study concluded that a dried blood spot sample detected only 30-40 per cent of babies with CMV infection.
Nearly 35,000 infants in the well baby nurseries of seven hospitals were enrolled in the study between June 2008 and November 2009. Mouth swabs were taken when the infants were about one day old and they were sent to UAB for testing.
For the initial phase of the trial, the saliva samples were stored in solution, while for the second phase, the swabs were air dried.
In phase one, 85 babies were found to have CMV and all were detected through the screening methods, while in phase two, the detection rate was 97.4 per cent.
Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers say that dry samples may be the best option for wide-scale screening, because this method has high sensitivity plus it is more efficient in terms of sample collection, storage, and transport.
"We now know that we have a test with saliva that works," said Dr Boppana. "The challenge is, unlike the dried blood spot, which is already used for newborn screening in hospitals across the country, we don’t have a system in place for the collection of saliva.”
The researchers are now hoping to establish how much congenital CMV infection contributes to overall hearing loss at birth and between the ages of 3 ? to four years old.
Any babies who tested positive for CMV infection in the study are being enrolled in a follow-up program to monitor their hearing every six months until they are four years of age.
Dr James Battery, director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, which part-funded the research, said: “It’s important for us to develop diagnostic tools to screen babies for congenital CMV infection so that those who test positive can be monitored for possible hearing loss and, if it occurs, provided with appropriate intervention as soon as possible.”
New England Journal of Medicine June 1 2011
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