title: The elusive search for fetal infection. Changing the gold standards.
abstract: Two percent to four percent of all newborns have a major structural malformation of which only a small percentage can be explained by either aneuploidy or a single-gene disorder. No other mammal has a similar reproductive problem. It is the suggestion that previously unrecognized viral infection accounts for a large percentage of these abnormalities by interfering with appropriate embryonic cell migration, reducing hyperplasia, or damaging the precursor structure by means of an inflammatory mechanism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, Reproductive Sciences, and Physiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA.
authors.forename: C P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Weiner
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000013:Congenital Abnormalities / Q000821:virology*; D003663:Decision Trees; D005260:Female; D005315:Fetal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D011247:Pregnancy; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis / Q000379:methods*; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000635:transmission