In 1904, Ribbert13 reported the presence of distinctive inclusion bodies in the cells of the kidney and parotid gland of a stillborn infant. In the same year, Jesionek and Kiolemenoglou 9 described similar inclusions in cells of the kidney, liver, and lungs of another stillborn infant. Since then, these inclusions, which are associated with cytomegalic inclusion-body disease, have been found with increasing frequency in young children5,8,14 as well as in adults.1,10,17,19 Wyatt et al.20 reported the presence of these inclusions, localized in the salivary gland, in 10% of infants coming to autopsy. In 2% of the infants the disease was generalized.
The diagnosis of cytomegalic inclusion disease was originally made only after histologic study of postmortem tissue or by liver biopsy 18; later the possibility of a premortem diagnosis by the demonstration of inclusion bodies in the cells exfoliated in the urine 6,20 or in gastric