comparison of integrated cell culture -rt-pcr & cell culture methods for detection of enteroviruses

background: generally, sewage exposed water could be potentially contaminated with enteroviruses. for this reason, en­terovirus isolation from sewage specimens is one of the most sensitive indicators for virus circulation in the population. we evalu­ated the icc-rt-pcr and cell culture methods for detection of enteroviruses in tehran sewage system. methods: this research utilized 63 specimens provided through grab sample method to concentrate by two-phase method and cultured in rd and hep-2 cells, respectively. all specimens then were inoculated using sensitive cell cultures of rd and hep-2. after 24 hours incubation at 36 ˚c by means of pan e.v primers and afterwards pan p.v primers along with spe­cific sabin primers, rt-pcr was carried out on the cell culture specimens. data were analyzed using spss software (spss for and anova test as well as chi-square test. results: out of 63 collected specimens, enteroviruses were isolated from 33 specimens (52.38%) and 41(65.01%) specimens which utilized cell-culture & icc-rt-pcr methods respectively. polioviruses were also isolated from 6 specimens. conclusions: statistical analysis indicated that there was a significant relationship (0.05 level) between cell culture and icc-rt-pcr methods to isolate enteroviruses. further the sensitivity of icc-rt-pcr method to detect en-teroviruses less than 0.01 tcid50 was evaluated, which indicated that this method is acceptable and sensitive enough to detect enteroviruses in sewage.