View clinical trials related to Congenital Toxoplasmosis.
Filter by:The Toxoplasma gondii parasite causes toxoplasmosis. It is characterized by persistent cysts mostly localised in the brain and ocular areas. In the case of immunodeficiency, those cysts are likely to reactivate. During pregnancy, an infection exposes the foetus to a variety of consequences, from severe neurologic lesions to subclinical forms at birth. However, those forms are likely to complicate at any age to toxoplasmic retinochoroiditis, that can unpredictably recur with severe functional consequences. Pregnancy may stimulate lesions or their recurrences, putting the foetus at risk of contamination because of the release of tachyzoites in the bloodstream. The occurrence of these complications is poorly known, especially with congenital toxoplasmosis. Nevertheless, this information is essential to take care of patients, particularly women with congenital toxoplasmosis, usually worried about the consequences of a pregnancy. As a precaution, women with congenital toxoplasmosis follow a specific ophthalmologic, and trimonthly monitoring, composed of fundus examinations during pregnancy and in postpartum. To eliminate the contamination risk, serological examinations at birth and one year later are done on their kids. The aim of this study is to estimate the risk of toxoplasmic retinochoroiditis during pregnancy and the impact on their children. Retrospective and prospective data from the Lyon Cohort of Maternal and Congenital Toxoplasma Infections will be used. As a result of to this study, the investigators expect to provide better information to women suffering from congenital toxoplasmosis about their own ocular safety during pregnancy, and the safety of their child(ren). The investigators seek to provide new national and international recommendations about these patients and their children's care.
Caused by Toxoplasma gondii, toxoplasmosis is mostly asymptomatic except in immunocompromised individuals and infants infected in utero. Congenital toxoplasmosis (CT) results from the transplacental passage of the parasite, which occurs in 30% of cases of primary infection during pregnancy. Neonatal biological diagnosis of toxoplasmosis is essential in the case of (i) suggestive clinical signs in the newborn with no information on the serological status of the mother, (ii) seroconversion diagnosed during pregnancy, (iii) not or poorly followed pregnancy, and (iiii) for enhanced effectiveness of treatments administered as soon as possible to the newborn. Given the limitations of current diagnostic tests, the characterization of specific immunoglobulin (Ig)G neo-synthesized by the newborn would be of great help for an early diagnosis of CT. The main objective of the TOXODIAG project is to validate and evaluate the ELISPOT (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent SPOT assay) method for detecting, in the newborn, B lymphocytes (LyB) sensitized in utero to produce T. gondii specific immunoglobulins (Ig) following a primary infection of the mother during the pregnancy. More precisely, the detection and quantification of LyB secreting IgG and IgM specific for T. gondii using the ELISPOT method will be applied i) to mononuclear cells of women in seroconversion following a toxoplasmic primo-infection during pregnancy and ii) to cord blood mononuclear cells of newborns suspected of CT, in comparison to positive and negative infection controls. To reach this goal, TOXODIAG is a diagnostic, multicentric, prospective, non-randomized, comparative and controlled study. It will be performed in 3 parallel groups of pregnant women performing prenatal follow-up and giving birth in the maternity wards of 3 hospitals of the AP-HP (Louis MOURIER, Bichat-Claude Bernard and Cochin) which ensure mother/child follow-up and biological sampling, with great gynecology and obstetrics expertise. Sixty women will be selected and included into 3 groups according to toxoplasmic seroconversion during pregnancy (n=30), positive (n=15) or negative (n=15) toxoplasma serology. The necessary biological material will consist in additional blood tubes which will be taken at the same time as those performed for the usual pregnancy follow-up examinations and will correspond to maternal peripheral blood at inclusion, seroconversion and delivery as well as cord blood.
Toxoplasmosis is a benign disease in healthy adults, but can be serious in the case of contamination during pregnancy: the parasite can pass through the placental barrier and infect the foetus. The severity of congenital infection varies, but in France, where maternal seroconversions during pregnancy are treated, the manifestations of the disease are often infraclinical at birth and only appear during the first years of life in the form of retinochoroiditis. In order to prevent long-term sequellae, children with confirmed congenital toxoplasmosis (TC) are treated with pyrimethamine combined with either sulfadiazine or sulfadoxine (Fansidar®). The relative efficacy of these two combinations has not yet been evaluated. Moreover, there is no consensus about the duration of the treatment, which varies, in France, from 12 to 24 months depending on the centre. Compared with the duration of parasitaemia in non-treated children, which can persist for up to 4 weeks, these treatments are very long. They are also far longer than the 3 months of treatment, which is in accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, given in Denmark to infants identified as being infected with the parasite during neonatal screening. A one-year treatment was developed in the United States, but it mainly concerns only symptomatic children, given the absence of generalised screening in the United States of America (USA). We have no arguments to justify the use of treatments lasting one year or more in children with asymptomatic or mildly-symptomatic TC. As these treatments carry certain risks, which may be severe, notably with regard to haematological or skin conditions, they have to be supervised closely with biological tests, which adds further constraints for both the children and their parents and increases the cost to health care systems.
Background : When a mother contracts toxoplasmosis during pregnancy, the parasite may be transmitted from to her unborn child. This results in congenital toxoplasmosis, which may cause damage to the eyes and nervous system of the child. To date, no method has been proved effective to prevent this transmission. In France, spiramycin is usually prescribed to women who have toxoplasma seroconversion in pregnancy, however its efficacy has not been determined. The standard treatment for toxoplasmosis is the combination of the antiparasitic drugs pyrimethamine and sulfadiazine, but this strategy has not been evaluated for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission. Purpose : Randomized phase 3 trial to determine whether pyrimethamine + sulfadiazine is more effective than spiramycin to prevent congenital toxoplasmosis.