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Updated: May 20, 2026

Isolation of Endocardial and Coronary Endothelial Cells from the Ventricular Free Wall of the Rat Heart
Published on: April 15, 2020
Quantitative genomic and antigenomic enterovirus RNA detection in explanted heart tissue samples from patients with
Nicolas Lévêque1, Fanny Renois, Déborah Talmud
1Clinical and Molecular Virology Unit, University Hospital, Reims, France. nleveque@chu-reims.fr
Abstract:
Standardized one-step real-time RT-PCR assay detected enterovirus RNA in cardiac biopsy samples from 4 of 20 patients suffering from idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDCM). The median viral load was 287 copies per microgram of total extracted nucleic acids, with positive- to negative-strand RNA ratios ranging from 2 to 20. These results demonstrate enterovirus persistence in the heart of IDCM patients, characterized by low viral loads and low positive- to negative-RNA ratios.

