Nairn C, Galbraith D N, Clements G B
Regional Virus Laboratory, Ruchill Hospital, Glasgow, Scotland.
J Med Virol. 1995 Aug;46(4):310-3. doi: 10.1002/jmv.1890460404.
Coxsackie B enteroviruses have been implicated repeatedly as agents associated with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). The objective of this study was to compare the serological evidence for the presence of Coxsackie B virus neutralising antibody, with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detecting a portion of the 5' nontranslated region (NTR) of the enterovirus genome. Serum samples from 100 chronic fatigue patients and from 100 healthy comparison patients were used in this study. In the CFS study group, 42% patients were positive for enteroviral sequences by PCR, compared to only 9% of the comparison group. Using the neutralisation assay, 34% of study patients were positive, compared to 41% of comparison patients. In the study group, 66/100 patient results correlated, i.e., they were either positive/positive or negative/negative for both tests. Of those that did not correlate, the majority were PCR-positive/Coxsackie B antibody-negative (21/34). In the comparison group, 58/100 patient results correlated. Of those that did not, the majority were PCR-negative/Coxsackie B antibody-positive (37/42). The Coxsackie B antibody neutralisation assay was not able to differentiate the CFS study group from the healthy comparison group, and thus the clinical relevance of this assay may be questioned. The PCR assay did differentiate the two groups with significantly more CFS patients having evidence of enterovirus than the comparison group.
柯萨奇B组肠道病毒多次被认为是与慢性疲劳综合征（CFS）相关的病原体。本研究的目的是比较柯萨奇B病毒中和抗体存在的血清学证据与检测肠道病毒基因组5'非翻译区（NTR）一部分的聚合酶链反应（PCR）结果。本研究使用了100例慢性疲劳患者和100例健康对照者的血清样本。在CFS研究组中，42%的患者PCR检测肠道病毒序列呈阳性，而对照组仅为9%。采用中和试验，研究组34%的患者呈阳性，对照组为41%。在研究组中，100例患者中有66例结果相关，即两项检测均为阳性/阳性或阴性/阴性。在不相关的结果中，大多数是PCR阳性/柯萨奇B抗体阴性（21/34）。在对照组中，100例患者中有58例结果相关。在不相关的结果中，大多数是PCR阴性/柯萨奇B抗体阳性（37/42）。柯萨奇B抗体中和试验无法区分CFS研究组和健康对照组，因此该试验的临床相关性可能受到质疑。PCR试验确实区分了两组，有证据表明感染肠道病毒的CFS患者明显多于对照组。
