[Grippe and pregnancy. Relation of birth weight to placenta weight]. / Grippe et grossesse. Relation avec le poids de naissance et le poids du placenta.

The different results that have been published concerning the problem of the final outcome for patients who have had influenza during pregnancy reported in numerous works might be explained by differences in methodology used by the different authors. A study was carried out in the Haguenau Maternity Hospital (Bas-Rhin) when an epidemic of influenza occurred in 1972-173. The virological diagnosis was made by carrying out separate serological estimations on 1940 pregnant women. It can be shown that the mean birthweight dropped in infants of mothers who had contracted influenza during pregnancy even when corrections were made for sex and the duration of the pregnancy. The drop in weight of the placenta (37.3 g as a mean) was more obvious and can totally explain the drop in fetal weight. It was not possible to demonstrate any increase in the number of congenital malformations that were found in the neonatal period in the infants born to women who had had influenza. These results suggest that there is no direct passage of the influenza virus across the placenta which, however, is itself modified by the infection.

[Sero-epidemiology of infections due to cytomegalovirus by indirect hemagglutination technic]. / Sero-epidemiologie des infections à cytomegalovirus par la technique d'hemagglutination indirecte

Applied to cytomegalovirus, the technique of indirect hemagglutination offers a good sensitivity and reliable specificity for serological testings. Improvements in the standardization are however still required. Sero-epidemiological studies performed in different groups of children and carried out with this method led to the following results: mother-child contagium, early infection in young infants, and influence of socio-economical and ethnical factors. Studies performed on pregnant women showed that the risk of infection decreased after the first pregnancy.