Laboratory Evidence Of Virus Infection Research Articles

Clinical predictors of outcome in encephalitis.

Twenty five patients with encephalitis were studied prospectively, and their clinical and virological features compared with outcome. Among 22 patients with laboratory confirmation of virus infection, evidence of direct effect on the central nervous system by the virus occurred significantly more often both in those with a monophasic illness compared with those with a biphasic illness, and in those with focal neurological signs localising in the cerebral hemispheres compared with those without such signs. Young age at presentation, low score on the Glasgow coma scale, disruption of oculocephalic responses, and laboratory evidence of virus infection within the central nervous system were significantly associated with poor outcome. Computed tomography results, concentrations of creatine phosphokinase BB isoenzyme in cerebrospinal fluid, and procoagulant activity in cerebrospinal fluid were not predictive of outcome.

Studies of experimental rhinovirus type 2 infections in polar isolation and in England

After five months of total isolation a wintering party of seventeen British Antarctic Survey (BAS) personnel was inoculated under double blind concitions with placebo, or rhinovirus type 2 which had been propagated in tissue culture. The clinical and virological responses of these subjects were compared with those of volunteers in England who received a similar dose of the same strain. The virus used was apparently partly attenuated for man; at the dosage used its effects in England were similar to a smaller dose of an unattenuated strain, but in the Antarctic it caused relatively severe infections. Both the symptoms and the laboratory evidence of virus infection appeared to be more pronounced in the BAS subjects than in the volunteers in England who received the same challenge. In the former group the infection readily spread to those who were originally given placebo. In the BAS subjects serum antibody titres were well maintained during the isolation period but a significant fall in nasal immunoglobulin concentration was recorded during the 5 months of isolation after the virus challenge. Possible mechanisms for the increased sensitivity to rhinovirus of subjects who have been totally isolated in a small closed community are discussed.

Children with acute respiratory tract infections. An electrocardiographic survey.

The prevalence of electrocardiographic abnormalities suggestive of myocarditis among 737 children with respiratory tract infection was 1.49%, which did not differ significantly from that encountered in a control group of 108 cases without respiratory tract illness. Six (46.2%) of 13 patients with abnormal electrocardiograms and 412 (49.5%) of 832 patients with normal ECGs showed laboratory evidence of recent virus infection. The distribution of virus serotypes was also the same in the two groups with and without ECG changes. These findings indicate that the ECG abnormalities were a random occurrence not associated with illness or with laboratory evidence of virus infections. Diagnostic tests more sensitive and/or more specific than the ECG are necessary to determine whether or not myocarditis occurs as a complication of acute infections of the respiratory tract.