Enteroviruses were identified and characterized from patients with aseptic meningitis and other enterovirusrelated diseases in Chungnam, Korea from 2005 to 2006. Enteroviruses were isolated from 79 of 519 cases (15.2%) in 2005, and 37 of 386 cases (9.6%) in 2006. Based on partial VP1 sequencing, a total of 116 enterovirus isolates were resolved into 13 types. Prevalent among the Chungnam isolates were echovirus 18 and coxsackievirus B5 in 2005, and echoviruses 5 and 25 in 2006. This is the first time echoviruses 5 and 18 have been identified in Korea since enterovirus surveillance began there in 1993. The temporal distribution of enterovirus epidemics in Chungnam showed a remarkable seasonal pattern, with cases occurring during most of the three months of the summer from June to August. The highest rate of enterovirus-positive cases occurred in patients less than 1 year of age. The ratio of male to female enterovirus-positive patients was approximately 1.8:1. Comparison of the VP1 amino acid sequences of the 15 coxsackievirus B5 isolates with reference strains revealed that all Chungnam isolates are substituted at positions 23 (V23I), 19 (S19G), 75 (Y75F), and 95 (N95S). Upon comparing the nine ECV5 isolates with foreign strains, it was found that only the Chungnam isolates, with the exception of Kor06-ECV5-239cn, have P at position 153 and F at position 146. The three ECV9 isolates from 2006 show alterations at amino acids 36, 148, and 154 outside of the BC-loop and at position 84 in the BC-loop, whereas the seven isolates from 2005 and the other ECV9 strains in the database only show the alteration at position 84 (D, I, N, S). The five ECV25 isolates have an S residue at position 134, whereas most of the foreign strains have an N residue.

Background : Enteroviruses are known as major pathogen for aseptic meningitis. Although rapid diagnosis for enteroviruses is very essential to exclude bacterial infections in patients with meningitis, classical diagnostic method based on virus isolation is not practicable for timely treatment of patients due to its laborious and time-consuming procedure. Recently molecular methodologies as alternatives are routinely used for rapid and sensitive diagnosis for enteroviruses infections.Methods : Reverse transcription (RT)-PCR ELISA kit for targeting 5'non-coding region (NCR) with highly conserved genetic identity among all genotypes of enteroviruses was introduced in this investigation. RT-PCR ELISA was evaluated about sensitivity and specificity through virus isolation using clinical specimens from patients suspected of enteroviral infections and enteroviral isolates comparing with conventional RT-PCR identifying them.Results : The detection limit of the RT-PCR ELISA was up to 10-100 folds higher than virus isolation using cell culture and conventional RT-PCR. On comparison between above two methods, the detection rate of RT-PCR ELISA for clinical specimens from patients with aseptic meningitis was 7% higher than that of conventional RT-PCR targeting 5'NCR (P=0.016).Conclusions : Our results suggest that RT-PCR ELISA developed in this study could be an alternative diagnostic method for the detection of enteroviral genome with high sensitivity and specificity. (Korean J Lab Med 2009;29:594-600)