prenatal diagnosis of congenital toxoplasmosis: validity of pcr using amniotic fluid against indirect fluorescent antibody assay in mothers

maternal infection with toxoplasma gondii acquired during pregnancy may result in congenital infection of developing fetuses. up to now, decision on informed therapeutic abortion of fetuses suspected of having t. gondii infection in iran has been made based on serological findings in mothers. this might have led to unnecessary abortion of many uninfected children. we evaluated the polymerase chain reaction (pcr) assay on amniotic fluids against serological findings in mothers. pcr results in this study indicated that only about one third of indirect fluorescent antibody (ifa) positive mothers had passed the infection to their children. it was a sigh of relief for the majority of mothers who learned that their infants were uninfected. on the other hand it helped the mothers of infected fetuses out of an awkward predicament by making them able to make a solid decision to terminate the pregnancy or carry their children to term.