ELISA antibodies to cytomegalovirus in pregnant patients: prevalence in and correlation with spontaneous abortion.

Prevalence of seroimmunity to cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection was tested by detecting ELISA IgG antibodies in 230 pregnant subjects from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Seroimmunity increased from 64.3% to 92.0% between the ages 15-20 and 35-40. Furthermore, ELISA IgM antibodies were detected during hospitalization in a group of 56 women whose pregnancies ended in spontaneous abortion and in a paired matched-control group. The overall percentage of IgM-positive reactions was 5.35% in the group with abortion. The percentage for only second trimester abortions amounted to 18.75%. There was no IgM-positive reaction in the control group.