No evidence for persistent enterovirus infection in patients with end-stage idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy

Persistence of enteroviruses in heart tissue has been implicated in the etiology of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDC). Therefore, we determined the prevalence of enterovirus RNA in heart tissue from patients with end-stage IDC. During heart transplantation, 287 transmural biopsy specimens were aseptically collected from the explanted hearts of 38 patients with IDC and of 39 patients with cardiac failure of known cause. A nested polymerase chain reaction with general specificity for enteroviruses was used to screen for the presence of enterovirus RNA 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 IDC, nor with other heart diseases of known cause.