Prenatal Diagnosis of Congenital Toxoplasmosis with a Polymerase-Chain-Reaction Test on Amniotic Fluid

Maternal infection with Toxoplasma gondii acquired during pregnancy may result in congenital infection and serious sequelae in the neonatal period or years after birth 1 . Prenatal diagnosis of congenital toxoplasmosis is based on ultrasonography, 2 amniocentesis, and fetal-blood sampling 3 , 4 . Although reliable, 5 , 6 screening pregnant women at risk and prenatal diagnosis of congenital toxoplasmosis remain controversial 7 . Given the rate of false negative prenatal diagnoses, 6 the risk associated with fetal-blood sampling, and the delay in obtaining definitive results with conventional parasitologic tests, better methods are needed. We evaluated a simpler approach to the prenatal diagnosis of toxoplasmosis. We report here . . .