Cerebral ultrasound images in prenatal cytomegalovirus infection.

A male newborn with prenatal cytomegalovirus infection was referred for cranial ultrasound. The cranial ultrasound demonstrated areas of increased echogenicity in the thalamic and gray nuclei resembling "a branched candlestick". Doppler technique located the "branched candlestick" along the thalamostriate arteries. This image is particularly interesting because to our knowledge it has never before been described in congenital cytomegalovirus infection, but only in congenital rubella.