Table 2.
Methods used to identify and classify enterovirus CNS infections.
| Technique | Method of identification | Host isolate | Tools | Specificity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tissue culture (Leland, 2008) | Presence of cellular cytopathic effect | Cerebral spinal fluid | Selective cell lines | Genus |
| Reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction + genomic sequence (Romero, 1999) | Genomic amplification | Cerebral spinal fluid | Enterovirus specific primers — majority amplify 5′ UTR (Rotbart, 1990) | Serotype — nucleotide mutations (Mirand, 2008) |
| Quantitative real time PCR (Dierssen, 2008) | Genomic amplification | Cerebral spinal fluid | Enterovirus specific primers — majority amplify 5′ UTR | Genus |
| Immunohistochemistry | Visualization using virally specific antibodies | Central nervous system tissue | Visualization/microscopy | Cellular localization |
| In situ hybridization | Visualization using virally specific probes | Central nervous system tissue | Visualization/microscopy | Cellular localization |