NO EVIDENCE FOR PERSISTENT ENTEROVIRUS INFECTION IN PATIENTS WITH END-STAGE IDIOPATHIC DILATED CARDIOMYOPATHY

Persistence of enteroviruses in heart tissue has been implicated in th e etiology of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDC). Therefore, we d etermined the prevalence of enterovirus RNA in heart tissue from patie nts with end-stage IDC. During heart transplantation, 287 transmural b iopsy specimens were aseptically collected from the explanted hearts o f 38 patients with IDC and of 39 patients with cardiac failure of know n cause. A nested polymerase chain reaction with general specificity f or enteroviruses was used to screen for the presence of enterovirus RN A in the heart tissue samples. No enterovirus RNA was detected in any of the 287 heart biopsy specimens. These findings lead to a conclusion that enteroviruses do not persist in heart tissue from patients with end-stage LDC, nor with other heart diseases of known cause.