Diagnosis of intrauterine parvovirus B19 infection at birth - Value of DNA detection in neonatal blood and dried blood spots.

Background: Diagnosis of congenital viral infection at birth is generally attempted by direct detection of the virus by PCR in various neonatal materials. How to reliably diagnose intrauterine infection with parvovirus B19 (B19 V) at birth is unknown.

Objectives: To evaluate the performance of B19 V DNA detection in cord blood (CB) or neonatal dried blood spots (DBS) in diagnosing fetal infection.

High prevalence of human parvovirus B19 DNA in myocardial autopsy samples from subjects without myocarditis or dilative cardiomyopathy.

Human parvovirus B19 has been linked to a variety of cardiac diseases, as well as to erythema infectiosum, acute arthropathy, and fetal hydrops. A causal association between viral infection and cardiac disease was frequently postulated following the detection of B19 DNA by PCR in endomyocardial biopsy specimens. Since the lifelong persistence of B19 DNA in bone marrow, skin, synovia, tonsils, and liver was previously reported, the aim of our study was to investigate the possibility of asymptomatic B19 DNA persistence in heart tissue.

A convenient rapid culture assay for the detection of enteroviruses in clinical samples: comparison with conventional cell culture and RT-PCR.

A convenient rapid culture assay (RCA) for the detection of enteroviruses was evaluated against RT-PCR using 576 stool and 102 cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples. One hundred and ninety stool samples were also tested by conventional cell culture (CCC). The RCA used immunoperoxidase staining of cell culture plates with a blend of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against enterovirus VP1 on the second and sixth days after inoculation.