Serological andmolecular evidence ofenterovirus infection inpatients withend-stage dilated cardiomyopathy

Objective-To studytherelative diagnosticvalueofenterovirus-specific molecularbiological andserological assaysin patients withend-stage dilated cardiomyopathy, andtoinvestigate thepossible roleof othercardiotropic virusesin dilated cardiomyopathy. Design-Analysis ofrecipient myocardial tissueand serum frompatients with dilatedcardiomyopathy and controls undergoing cardiactransplantation for end-stage cardiac disease. Setting-University virology department andtransplantation unit. Methods-Reversetranscriptase-polymerasechainreaction and nucleotide sequence analysis ofmyocardial RNA and DNA;enterovirus-specific insituhybridisation; enterovirus-specific immunoglobulinM detection. Results-Enterovirus RNA wasdetected inmyocardial tissue fromonlya small proportion of(five of75)hearts. However, although enterovirus-specific