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Detection of enteroviral RNA by polymerase chain reaction in faecal samples from patients with aseptic meningitis
Author(s) -
Glimåker Martin,
Abebe Almaz,
Johansson Bo,
Ehrnst Anneka,
Olcén Per,
Strannegård Orjan
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/jmv.1890380112
Subject(s) - aseptic meningitis , virology , polymerase chain reaction , meningitis , biology , virus , enterovirus , microbiology and biotechnology , medicine , gene , genetics , psychiatry
An assay based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for detection of enteroviral RNA in stool samples was carried out using specimens from 74 patients with aseptic meningitis. The primer pair and probe were derived from the highly conserved 5′ non‐coding enterovirus genomic region. Enteroviral RNA was detected in faeces of all 36 patients in whom an enterovirus was isolated from stool. The PCR assay yielded positive results in additionally 316 cases where enterovirus diagnoses were obtained by virus isolation from cerebrospinal fluid and/or serological tests. Thus, the positive outcome of the PCR assay was 39 (93%) among the 42 patients with enterovirus diagnoses. Furthermore, 7/19 (37%) cases with an etiology that was not established by other means were positive in the test indicating that the PCR assay may give considerable additional etiological information in patients with aseptic meningitis. The limit of RNA detectability in the PCR assay was about 100 TCID, when highly cytopathogenic enterovirus types (coxsackievirus type B5 and echovirus type 11) were tested. The PCR was negative in all 13 patients with non‐enterovirus diagnoses except in one case with a herpes simplex virus type 2 infection. Since enterovirus‐specific IgM antibodies could be detected in this case a dual infection seemed probable. All the negative controls, included in the study, were PCR‐negative and no contamination was encountered. This study proves the usefulness of the PCR assay for detection of enteroviral RNA in stool samples and suggests that the test may be an alternative to virus isolation for rapid enterovirus diagnosis in patients with aseptic meningitis. © 1992 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.