1. Enterovirus infections in pediatric hematologic/oncologic patients
- Author
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Daniela Sperl, Herwig Lackner, Markus Keldorfer, Klara Zach, Evelyn Stelzl, Stephan W. Aberle, Volker Strenger, Harald H. Kessler, Anna Karastaneva, Christian Urban, Hans Jürgen Dornbusch, and Martin Benesch
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Adolescent ,Picornavirus ,medicine.medical_treatment ,Viremia ,Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation ,medicine.disease_cause ,Severity of Illness Index ,Gastroenterology ,Young Adult ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Risk Factors ,Internal medicine ,Enterovirus Infections ,Humans ,Medicine ,Viral shedding ,Child ,Immunodeficiency ,Enterovirus ,Retrospective Studies ,biology ,business.industry ,Infant ,RNA ,Hematology ,Prognosis ,biology.organism_classification ,medicine.disease ,Oncology ,Austria ,Child, Preschool ,Hematologic Neoplasms ,030220 oncology & carcinogenesis ,Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health ,Cohort ,Female ,business ,Follow-Up Studies ,030215 immunology - Abstract
Background Enteroviruses (EV) are a large group of Picornaviruses associated with respiratory, gastrointestinal, and neurologic symptoms in the immunocompetent host. Little is known about the epidemiologic and clinical impact in pediatric hematologic/oncologic patients. Procedure From 2001 through 2017, different clinical specimens were collected from pediatric hematologic/oncologic patients and were tested for enteroviral RNA. Results Of 13 004 specimens collected from 761 patients, 38 (0.3%) obtained from 14 patients (1.8%) tested positive for EV RNA. Viral shedding was observed without viremia and vice versa. None of 80 cerebrospinal fluid specimens obtained from 60 patients with neurologic symptoms were positive for EV RNA. None of 14 patients positive for EV RNA showed EV-specific symptoms. In 11/14 patients, EV RNA was found to be negative in the follow-up specimen. The remaining patient with a severe primary immune deficiency showed repeated positive EV RNA results for >5 years. Conclusions In this pediatric hematologic/oncologic cohort, EV infection occurred rarely and without related symptoms. Specimens concurrently obtained from one patient are commonly not in accordance with each other. In the vast majority of patients, EV RNA appears to turn negative in the follow-up specimen. EV infections seem to have a low impact in this patient cohort.
- Published
- 2018
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