Idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy and persistent viral infection: Lack of association in a controlled study using a quantitative assay

Silvia Moimas, Serena Zacchigna, Marco Merlo, Alessandra Buiatti, Marco Anzini, Lorella Dreas, Alessandro Salvi, Andrea Di Lenarda, Mauro Giacca, Gianfranco Sinagra*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Background: It remains unclear whether idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) might ensue as the consequence of viral myocarditis, due to viral persistence in cardiomyocytes. To address this issue, we quantified the levels of enterovirus, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), Herpes Simplex Virus-1 (HSV-1), Herpes Simplex Virus-2 (HSV-2), adenovirus and parvovirus B19 genomes in endomyocardial biopsies (EMBs) from patients with DCM, active myocarditis and controls. Methods: Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based methods using TaqMan probes were developed for the quantitative detection of viral genomes in EMBs from 35 patients with DCM and 17 with active myocarditis. A control group included 20 surgical patients with valve or coronary artery disease. Results: None of the 72 samples tested positive for enteroviruses, EBV, HSV-1 or -2. One DCM patient tested positive for adenovirus. Of notice, 20/52 (38%) of patients with cardiomyopathy and 8/20 (40%) of controls were positive for parvovirus B19; no significant differences in viral titre were detected between groups. Conclusions: Our preliminary results disfavour the hypothesis that persistent myocardial viral infection might be a frequent cause of DCM. The detection of parvovirus B19 from both cardiomyopathy and non-cardiomyopathy patients supports the notion that this virus is widely spread in the population.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)787-793
Number of pages7
JournalHeart Lung and Circulation
Volume21
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2012

Keywords

  • Dilated cardiomyopathy
  • Parvovirus B19
  • Real-time PCR
  • Virus persistence

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