Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) and encephalomyelitis were two major clinical manifestations during the 1998 enterovirus 71 (EV71) epidemic in Taiwan. To investigate whether different-clinical patterns were caused by alterations in EV71 genomes, the complete nucleotide sequences of four EV71 strains associated with HFMD or encephalomyelitis were compared. Among these viral strains, two or three nucleotide differences were found within the 5 ' -noncoding region, and two or four amino acid differences were found within the regions encoding viral polyproteins; however, none of these differences were correlated with either clinical manifestation. Because coxsackievirus A16 was another major causative agent of HFMD, a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assay, with high sensitivity and specificity for identification of EV71 (both 100%) and coxsackievirus A16 (100 and 98.8%), was developed for the rapid differential identification of these two viruses in HFMD patients. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
