Newborn hearing screening of infants with possible congenital Zika virus infection

• Grant number: 17/04232-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2017
• End date: June 30, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Speech Therapy
• Principal Investigator: Adriana Ribeiro Tavares
• Grantee: Gabriela Giannotti Ferreira da Silva
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto (FMRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Zika virus (ZIKV) can be transmitted or when the mother is infected with the virus in the last days of pregnancy and passes it to the newborn during childbirth or through contaminated amniotic fluid in contact with the fetus during pregnancy, which in this case can cause severe neurological damage. The relationship between the occurrence of microcephaly and the infection in pregnancy by Zika virus has been described for the first time in history, based on the outbreak in Brazil between January and October of 2015. In addition to the association of ZIKV with the Microcephaly, other innumerable alterations have been documented, such as intracranial calcifications, ventriculomegaly, decreased cerebral parenchyma volume, cortical atrophies, cerebellar hypoplasia, cerebellar vermis or brainstem, delayed myelination and corpus callosum hypoplasia, as well as symptoms Clinical trials. There are also reports of the hearing loss in infants exposed to ZIKV. The hearing is a prerequisite for the acquisition and development of language and speech, and hearing impairment is one of the main causes of disturbances in this evolution. The best strategy for the early diagnosis of deafness is the Universal Neonatal Hearing Screening (UNHS), which uses the Transient Otoacoustic Emissions (TOAE) when the baby has no hearing risk indicators or the combined application of TOAE procedures and Automatic Auditory Brainstem Response (A-ABR). As the Zika virus still has its unknown effects on the auditory system, currently a baby exposed to this virus has been considered a child with a hearing loss indicator and the combined strategy has been performed, thus making a complete evaluation of the peripheral and central auditory systems. AIM: To describe the results of the UNHS in neonates exposed to the Zika virus in two maternities of a city in the interior of the State of São Paulo. Method: Descriptive study based on a retrospective analysis of the database from 2016 to 2017 of a Universal Neonatal Hearing Screening (UNHS) of two maternity hospitals. Keywords: neonatal screening; newborn; Early diagnosis; Zika virus; microcephaly; Hearing Loss. (AU)