Table 1.
The presence of RNA in PBL of serial blood samples over time of 20 patients with enterovirus associated CFS who were severely ill
| Patient identifier | Duration of illness (years) | Month | ||||||||
| 1 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 21 | 24 | ||
| BC | 5 | ++ | ++ | – | – | ++ | ||||
| BS | 3 | ++ | ++ | – | ||||||
| BM | 4 | ++ | + | + | + | + | + | |||
| BA | 2 | ++ | – | + | ± | – | – | |||
| BJ | 2 | + | – | ± | + | |||||
| CL | 20 | ++ | – | ± | + | – | ||||
| DP | 14 | + | – | – | – | – | – | |||
| GL | 10 | ++ | – | – | – | |||||
| GH | 10 | ++ | ++ | ± | – | + | ± | – | ||
| GA | 8 | – | + | + | ++ | |||||
| GK | 3 | ++ | – | – | – | – | ++ | |||
| GB | 11 | + | ++ | – | ± | – | ||||
| GC | 2 | ++ | + | – | – | – | + | |||
| HK | 10 | + | + | – | + | – | – | |||
| HG | 5 | ++ | – | ± | – | + | – | |||
| HL | 3 | + | + | + | ++ | ± | – | – | ||
| KT | 1 | ++ | + | + | + | |||||
| MP | 1 | + | ++ | + | – | ± | – | – | ||
| MB | 7 | ++ | – | – | + | – | ||||
| PK | 2 | + | + | – | – | – | ||||
All of the patients were bedridden most of the time. Energy indices5 were consistently less than 2 on a 0–10 scale. The enteroviral RNA reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction/enzyme linked immunosorbent assay was performed as described previously.49 The final optical density (OD) was measured and tabulated. ++, OD of 2 to ⩾3; +, 1–1.9; ±, 0.5–0.99; –, ⩽0.49. The negative control was consistently ⩽0.49.
CSF, chronic fatigue syndrome; PBL, peripheral blood leucocytes.