title: [Use of polimerase chain reaction for neonatal diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) perinatal infection].
abstract: The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was evaluated for its ability to diagnose perinatal HIV-1 infection before the development of signs or symptoms of the disease in thirty-seven infants (median age of 5.5 days) born to HIV-1 infected women. Of 30 children with complete follow up (median of 25 months), 9 (30%) had serological and clinical features of HIV-1 infection and 21 (70%) were uninfected. Among the infected infants, 5/9 (56%) had positive neonatal PCR tests and 4/9 (44%) had negative PCR tests. None of the 21 uninfected children had positive PCR tests. The prognosis of HIV-1 disease in infected infants with a positive neonatal PCR positive test was similar to that of infected infants with a negative PCR test. In spite of not identifying all the infected infants, the PCR test is a useful tool for early diagnosis of HIV-1 perinatal infection, detecting infected newborns during gestation.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Puericultura e Pediatria da Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto (FMRP-USP), Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Mussi-Pinhata
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Ferez
authors.forename: D T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Covas
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Duarte
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Isaac
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Marana
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Bíscaro
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kashima