Case Report: A Very Low Birth Weight Female Infant With Congenital Bilateral Periventricular Leukomalacia, Born to a Mother With Coronavirus Disease 2019

Abstract

A 26-year-old primipara woman with COVID-19 performed an emergency Cesarean section due to further hypoxemia at 28 weeks 5/7 days gestation. The female neonate was born weighing 1,347 gram with an Apgar score of four at 1 min, three at 5 min, and eight at 10 min. RT-PCR from nasopharyngeal swabs for COVID-19 were performed at birth, 24 h, and 48 h after birth, all of which were negative. On head ultrasound bilateral cystic lesions were found in the anterior horn of the lateral ventricles at birth. A brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test at 56 days of life (corrected 36 weeks and 6/7 days) revealed cystic lesions with T1 low signal, T2 high signal, and T2 Flair high signal around the anterior horn of the lateral ventricle and We diagnose it as Grade 2 periventricular leukomalacia (PVL). She was discharged on day 64 of life, with no abnormality on exam. While the majority of neonates born to women with COVID-19 during pregnancy have favorable outcome, we report a case of a neonate with Grade 2 periventricular leukomalacia and this should prompt clinicians to monitor fetal cerebral function and structure shortly after birth.