[Coxsackievirus B3 infection and Keshan disease]

To study the relationship between the infection of enteroviruses and the etiology of keshan disease, we examined the 30 blood samples from the latent-chronic KD patients from Mianning, Xider, Derchang county of Sichuan Province with LDE-PCR (long distance enterovirus-specific RT PCR), two sensitive and specific ELISAs (one for CVB1-6 IgM and the other for CVB1-6 IgG), and three-primer RT PCR specific for CVB3. Results show that: 1) The infection rate of enteroviruses in the samples from the latent-chronic KD patients is higher than from the control group (80% VS 0%, P < 0.01); 2) The CVB1-6 antibody positive rate in latent-chronic KD is higher than that of the control group (IgM, 33% VS 0%, P < 0.01; IgG, 23% VS 0%, P < 0.01); 3) 16.6% (4/24) of enteroviruses positive samples or 40% (4/10) of CVB1-6 IgM antibody positive samples can be identified as CVB3. So, the infection of enter viruses maybe involves in the cause and development of latent-chronic keshan disease, and at least we conclude that the mutation of CVB3 is not the only cause of KD.