Detection of enteroviral RNA in idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy and other human cardiac tissues.

L M Weiss; X F Liu; K L Chang; M E Billingham

doi:10.1172/JCI115830

Department of Pathology, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, California 91010-0269.

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Department of Pathology, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, California 91010-0269.

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Department of Pathology, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, California 91010-0269.

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Department of Pathology, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, California 91010-0269.

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Published in Volume 90, Issue 1 on July 1, 1992
J Clin Invest. 1992;90(1):156–159. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI115830.
© 1992 The American Society for Clinical Investigation

Published July 1, 1992 - Version history

Enteroviruses have been considered to be a possible cause of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. We used a polymerase chain reaction methodology for the identification of enteroviral RNA in an attempt to provide evidence of a role for enteroviruses in the pathogenesis of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. The methodology was shown to identify a wide variety of enteroviruses with a sensitivity up to 0.1-1 plaque-forming units/gram of tissue. 5 of 11 cases (45%) of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, as well as 9 of 24 cases (38%) of a wide variety of other cardiac conditions (including normal heart), were positive for enteroviral nucleic acid sequences; all eight control cases of breast carcinoma tested were negative. These results suggest that both the normal and abnormal heart may represent a site of latent or low-grade persistent enteroviral infection, and that the mere presence of enteroviral nucleic acid sequences is not specifically associated with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.

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