Cytologic Diagnosis of Cytomegalic Inclusion-Body Disease

Abstract

In 1904, Ribbert13reported the presence of distinctive inclusion bodies in the cells of the kidney and parotid gland of a stillborn infant. In the same year, Jesionek and Kiolemenoglou9described similar inclusions in cells of the kidney, liver, and lungs of another stillborn infant. Since then, these inclusions, which are associated with cytomegalic inclusion-body disease, have been found with increasing frequency in young children5,8,14as well as in adults.1,10,17,19Wyatt et al.20reported the presence of these inclusions, localized in the salivary gland, in 10% of infants coming to autopsy. In 2% of the infants the disease was generalized. The diagnosis of cytomegalic inclusion disease was originally made only after histologic study of postmortem tissue or by liver biopsy18; later the possibility of a premortem diagnosis by the demonstration of inclusion bodies in the cells exfoliated in the urine6,20or in gastric