Early signs of cardiac failure: a clue for parvovirus infection screening in the first trimester?

Parvovirus B19 is a small single-stranded DNA virus and a potent inhibitor of erythropoiesis due to its cytotoxicity to erythroid progenitor cells. Although adult disease is generally mild, fetal parvovirus B19 infection can cause spontaneous abortion in early pregnancy and aplastic anemia, nonimmune hydrops fetalis and in utero fetal demise. The prevalence of parvovirus B19 maternal infection during pregnancy is about 1-2%. The vertical transmission occurs in 10-35%, being highest in the first and second trimesters. The risk of adverse fetal outcome is 10%. In contrast to the second or third trimester, in pregnancies affected by increased nuchal translucency (NT) in the late first trimester, the prevalence of maternal infection was not higher than in the general population. We report a case of first-trimester parvovirus B19 infection with increased NT and reversed a-wave in the ductus venosus (DV) at 11 weeks, with fetal demise 2 weeks later. Copyright (C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel