[Laboratory diagnostics of enterovirus cardiac infections].

Diagnostic efficacy of different markers of enterovirus cardiac infection (EVCI) has been evaluated. Testing of clinical samples from patients with myocarditis (n=50), dilatation cardiomyopathy (n=122), ischemic heart disease (n=34) and from healthy donors (n=50) revealed diagnostically significant markers in patients suspected for enterovirus cardiac infection: antienterovirus IgM in the patient's blood serum, the expression of viral proteins by myocardium cells and the presence of genome RNA and replicative intermediate in cardiac cells. The results obtained were used for developing up-to-date scheme of the EVCI diagnosis which included the data from the case history, the preliminary rapid diagnosis and the molecular biological study of the cardiac biopsies.

[Modified nested polymerase chain reaction in one tube for detection of Enterovirus].

A method of a modified nest-type polymerase chain reaction (MN-PCR), made in one tube, was elaborated that enhances the sensitivity and cuts the risk of cross-contamination in enteroviruses (EV) detection. The method, as described in detail above, was used to detect EV RNA in 76.9% and 31.

[Outbreak of enteroviral infection in Vitebsk during pollution of water supply by enteroviruses].

The conducted virologic, serological and molecular-and-biological investigations showed that virus Coxsakie B4, isolated from cerebrospinal fluid and rhinopharyngeal lavages of patients, was the main etiological agent, which caused mainly an outbreak of enterovirus infection in the city of Vitebsk in 2001. Coxsakie B4 viruses were found in 30% of samples by using the cultural method and in 76.9% of samples--by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) while carrying out the sanitary-and-virologic investigations in drinking water, including in infection foci.