The purpose of this contract is to 1) address the relationship between the presence of congenital CMV and long-term audiologic/otologic outcome, and 2) address the clinical validity and utility of CMV screening in the detection of permanent hearing impairment in the newborn, as well as the prediction of hearing impairment with onset during infancy or in the early years of life. The goals are to correlate CMV status at birth with the presence of permanent and/or progressive sensorineural hearing loss;to acquire information on the incidence, time course and audiologic outcomes of CMV related hearing loss;and to determine the extent to which CMV screening can improve detection and predictions of either existing or progressive hearing loss if combined with physiological metrics already in use for newborn hearing screening.
