Human rhinovirus detection in the lower respiratory tract of hematopoietic cell transplant recipients: association with mortality

Seo, Sachiko; Waghmare, Alpana; Scott, Emily M; Xie, Hu; Kuypers, Jane M; Hackman, Robert C.; Campbell, Angela P.; Choi, Su-Mi; Leisenring, Wendy M.; Jerome, Keith R.; Englund, Janet A.; Boeckh, Michael

Nasopharyngeal samples were collected when HCT recipients had URI symptoms and a BAL sample was obtained when patients had lower respiratory tract symptoms and a radiographic abnormality. HRV detection was performed by conventional culture and/or reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay in respiratory samples. The culture was performed using 3 different culture systems (rhesus monkey kidney cells [RMK] , adenocarcinomic human alveolar basal epithelial cells [A549], and human foreskin fibroblast [HFF]), and BAL samples were incubated for 10 days (an additional 11 days in HFFs culture) at 37ËšC. RT-PCR to detect HRV has been used routinely since 2007 in our center. RSV, PIV or influenza virus was detected by conventional culture, direct fluorescent antibody tests and/or PCR. The viral load of HRV was roughly estimated from the PCR cycle threshold (Ct) value of the sample that provided the initial diagnosis of HRV LRI. 17 All biopsy or autopsy samples were inoculated in 3 different cell lines as above and also tested for HRV using RT-PCR. In autopsy samples, 2 curls from a frozen specimen of each side of lungs were separately tested for HRV using RT-PCR.