[Hepatic disease in childhood and cytomegalovirus infection (author's transl)].

135 children with hepatitis and 179 patients with hepatomegaly of undetermined etiology were investigated for complement fixing antibodies to cytomegalovirus. 69 patients with hepatitis (51%) and 74 patients with hepatomegaly (41%) had a titer of 1:4 or above as compared with a control group of children without hepatic pathology in whom positive response occurred in only 20 resp. 18%. The mean titer found in the sero-positive patients was also significantly higher than that in the control group. In contrast, the incidence of positive sera in newborns with hyperbilirubinemia of unknown etiology did not differ significantly from that in a healthy control collective. Of 57 patients with liver disease, 20 excreted cytomegalovirus which was isolated 55 times from 103 urine specimens. These patients included 9 with hepatitis and 11 with hepatomegaly. Of 129 children without any indication of liver disease, cytomegalovirus could be demonstrated in only 3. Our results point toward a causal connection between the presence of cytomegalovirus and the development of hepatic disease in childhood.