An Evaluation of the Roller-Tube Tissue Culture for the Isolation of Poliomyelitis Viruses from Feces

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Abstract
Summary: Single fecal specimens from 216 patients were examined for the presence of poliomyelitis viruses by means of the roller-tube tissue culture technique employing mostly human tissues. Twenty-five additional specimens had previously been found positive for virus by an alternate technique. Specimens from which no virus was obtained at first were re-examined by modified procedures permitting the use of large quantities of material as inocula. A comparison of the efficiency of the various procedures for isolation of these agents is given and the results correlated with the clinical diagnoses. Virus was recovered from 96% of patients diagnosed as paralytic poliomyelitis, thus attesting to the sensitivity of the procedures. In contrast, these agents were obtained from only 43% of subjects diagnosed as nonparalytic poliomyelitis. A number of unidentified viruses were also recovered. A comparison of the sensitivity of various human tissues in the detection of poliomyelitis virus is also presented along with similar data for monkey and human kidney tissues. Application of the techniques that have been described may be expected to result in a high incidence of virus recoveries from feces of patients with poliomyelitis. The antigenic type of each of the poliomyelitis viruses isolated has been determined. No difference in the distribution of viral types between paralytic and nonparalytic cases of the disease was observed.