[Viral infections associated with intestinal invagination]

Intestinal invagination is rather frequently associated with local tumors, adenovirus infections, and occasionally with Yersinia enterocolitica. However, in many cases the etiology is not known. We have studied 88 children with intestinal invagination in whom cellular cultures of Hep 2 and pulmonary fibroblasts of human embryo have been inoculated with a fecal sample. The clinical reports have been reviewed retrospectively. In 19 patients (21.59%) we obtained an adenovirus and in 12 patients (13.63%) we isolated enteroviruses. These results have been compared with a control group of 1,059 children of a comparable age and during the same period of time who were admitted because diagnoses other than intestinal invagination. All controls where subjected to viral investigation in feces following the same procedure. In 71 of controls (6.7%) there were adenovirus in feces and in 74 cases (6.98%) the culture evidenced enteroviruses. Group differences for adenovirus were statistically significant (p = 0.00000172), whereas infections for enteroviruses reached a small significance (p = 0.03892). Among the 18 patients with intestinal invagination in whom the cultures were positive for adenoviruses, 10 presented a recent high airway infection. In contrast, this infection was only observed in 3 out of the 12 patients with culture positive to enteroviruses. The etiology of intestinal invagination in a large number of patients remains to be established. There are many pathogenic intestinal viruses that might cause intestinal invagination but they may be unable to grow into cellular cultures.