Quantitative detection of hepatitis B virus DNA in serum using chemiluminescence: comparison with radioactive solution hybridization assay.

A quantitative, non-radioactive hybrid capture HBV DNA assay (Digene Diagnostics), which uses an efficient solution hybridization procedure coupled to a sensitive chemiluminescent signal amplification system, was compared with the quantitative, radioactive solution hybridization assay (Genostics, Abbott Laboratories), in hepatitis B virus carriers, particularly in those undergoing antiviral therapy. The qualitative reproducibility of the chemiluminescent method, tested on 30 sera, was acceptable, with a reproducibility rate of 93.3%.

High prevalence of hepatitis C virus RNA in the supernatant and the cryoprecipitate of patients with essential and secondary type II mixed cryoglobulinemia.

Detection of hepatitis C virus RNA by polymerase chain reaction was performed in 26 patients with type II mixed cryoglobulinemia, and compared with anti-HCV antibody detection. The patients were divided into two groups according to etiology: 15 had essential type II mixed cryoglobulinemia and 11 had secondary type II mixed cryoglobulinemia. In the essential type II mixed cryoglobulinemia group, the prevalence of hepatitis C virus RNA detected by polymerase chain reaction was 60% in the supernatant and 93% in the cryoprecipitate.

[Acute encephalopathy following acquired rubella. Apropos of 6 cases].

The authors report 6 cases of acute encephalopathy during the course of primary rubella infection. The mean age of the patients was 7 years and 6 months. Clinical features included, 3 days after an inconstant exanthema, seizures, coma and hyperthermia.

[The role of Mycoplasma pneumoniae in acute pneumopathies in children].

Among 199 cases of bronchopulmonary infection in children observed over a 2-year period, 22 cases (11%) were due to Mycoplasma pneumoniae. The diagnosis was based upon the complement fixation test on whole serum in half of the children and the research of specific IgM by complement fixation test on fractioned serum and/or indirect immunofluorescence on the others. The mean age of children with Mycoplasma pneumoniae was 6 years.